Transit of Mercury 12th Nov.

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Ohlin Karcher

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On the 12th of November, 2019, Mercury will pass between the Earth and the Sun, a fairly rare event. The planet's silhouette will be visible from Earth.
This was first observed by scientists from a sailing vessel: Whitby collier HMS Endeavour, Captain J.Cook, in New Zealand 250 yrs ago. The same crew went on to observe the transit of Venus, allowing the distance of the Sun to be calculated.

Do any of the astro experts on here know if we could see this event from the UK, or would we have to be in NZ as well?
Mercury is absent from my Reeds Tables.
 
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It's actually 11th Nov. The transit should be visible from the UK all afternoon - on the unlikely assumption that we can actually see the sun. The transit starts at about 1235.
 
Ohlin Karcher said:
On the 12th of November, 2019, Mercury will pass between the Earth and the Sun, a fairly rare event. The planet's silhouette will be visible from Earth.
This was first observed by scientists from a sailing vessel: Whitby collier HMS Endeavour, Captain J.Cook, in New Zealand 250 yrs ago. The same crew went on to observe the transit of Venus, allowing the distance of the Sun to be calculated.

Do any of the astro experts on here know if we could see this event from the UK, or would we have to be in NZ as well?
Mercury is absent from my Reeds Tables.
Click to expand...

In this case Reeds is superseded by Google: https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/when-is-the-next-transit-of-mercury.

But the forecast is for cloud, including on 11th when everyone seems to think it is; don't miss it!

Mike.
 
Apparently Australia was not part of the planning when these transits, Mercury, were arranged :)

The last one was in 2006 and the next one is rather a long wait till 2036 (I think that is correct).

This is a great pity as we will be offshore then in hopefully ideal conditions to view the sun.

Jonathan
 
I don't think that a transit will be very easy to see with very basic equipment, which is a pity. We watched the transit of the much larger Venus in 2004. On that occasion we were in Kolobrzeg, Poland for the first time. I remember lining up my image-stabilised binoculars and projecting the sun onto a white card. I also engaged the attention of some German fellow-sailors that we were cruising with. I took photos of the projection but was mortified when the film was lost in the post.
 
Transits of Mercury are fairly common - 13 or 14 a century (i.e. about every 7 or 8 years. It is transits of Venus that are MUCH rarer (one pair of transits in a period of over a century). It was a transit of Venus that Cook observed in Tahiti.

The transit only lasts a few hours, so it will only be visible from parts of the Earth where the sun is up during the transit. I'd guess that a transit visible from Australia is unlikely to be visible in Western Europe.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Transits of Mercury are fairly common - 13 or 14 a century (i.e. about every 7 or 8 years. It is transits of Venus that are MUCH rarer (one pair of transits in a period of over a century). It was a transit of Venus that Cook observed in Tahiti.
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Grenwich Observatory website says: "Don't miss this extremely rare astronomical event. After all, it won't happen again until 13 November 2032...".

But that's only a factor of two more than your 7 years.

Mike.
 
mjcoon said:
Grenwich Observatory website says: "Don't miss this extremely rare astronomical event. After all, it won't happen again until 13 November 2032...".

But that's only a factor of two more than your 7 years.

Mike.
Click to expand...

There's only a 1 in 2 chance of a transit being visible at a specific place, so that makes sense. My statistic is global.
 
penberth3 said:
I watched the transit of Venus a few years ago without blinding myself.
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Venus is a much larger black dot, and can be seen without magnification, so suitable filters will work. Mercury requires magnification, so it's a more difficult observation. Projection using a pinhole will probably work, but direct viewing through a filter probably won't.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Venus is a much larger black dot, and can be seen without magnification, so suitable filters will work. Mercury requires magnification, so it's a more difficult observation. Projection using a pinhole will probably work, but direct viewing through a filter probably won't.
Click to expand...

For Venus I used an optic mounted on a tripod, projecting onto a white card, with a shade around the optic to put the card in its shadow. I would have tried the same on Monday if the weather had been different!
 
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