Safety Note: Do NOT look directly at the Sun or photograph it as injury to your eyes and damage to your camera will result. Tips on how to safely and properly view the Sun are here http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/view-the-sun-safely/ How to safely photograph a transit is discussed here http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/photographing-the-transit-of-venus/ and applies to Mercury as well as Venus.
With all of these clouds and rain we haven’t seen too much of the sky lately and tomorrow’s forecast predicts more of the same here in Virginia. The planet closest to the Sun, Mercury, will move across the face of the Sun as seen from Earth in an event astronomers call a “transit”. Mercury transits the Sun 13 or 14 times each century. The last time this occurred was November 8, 2006 and the next transit will be on November 11, 2019. Hopefully you were able to view Mercury last month http://wtop.com/the-space-place-tech/2016/04/look-up-the-april-sky-sights-are-upon-us/slide/1/
With all of these clouds and rain we haven’t seen too much of the sky lately and tomorrow’s forecast predicts more of the same here in Virginia. The planet closest to the Sun, Mercury, will move across the face of the Sun as seen from Earth in an event astronomers call a “transit”. Mercury transits the Sun 13 or 14 times each century. The last time this occurred was November 8, 2006 and the next transit will be on November 11, 2019. Hopefully you were able to view Mercury last month http://wtop.com/the-space-place-tech/2016/04/look-up-the-april-sky-sights-are-upon-us/slide/1/
For the East Coast USA the transit starts at 7:12 A.M. EDT and lasts until 2:42 p.m. EDT with the midpoint being at 10:57 a.m. EDT. Mercury is so small you cannot see it with your eyes and need a properly filtered telescope to see it. Details of the event are provided here http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/eclipse/index.html and here http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/may-9th-transit-of-mercury-everything-you-need-to-know/
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| 6/5/12 pic of the transit of Venus taken through a properly filtered telescope Greg Redfern |
NASA will have coverage of the transit www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-provide-coverage-of-may-9-mercury-transit-of-the-sun and there will also be an hour long program broadcast and images posted as detailed in the news release.
National Air & Space is holding a viewing event https://airandspace.si.edu/events/detail.cfm?id=22731.
University of Maryland Observatory www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse/ will have telescopes available.
David M. Brown Planetarium, Arlington http://friendsoftheplanetarium.org/post/75/.
Montgomery College http://www2.montgomerycollege.edu/departments/planet/planet/MercuryTransit2016.html will have telescopes available.
You can check with your local astronomy clubs, observatories and planetariums in your area to see if they are holding an event.
The safest and easiest view of Mercury’s slow movement across the face of our enormous star will be by watching live on the Internet. There are several venues for you to choose from:
www.slooh.com will be hosting a live viewing event as will the National Air and Space Observatory. Sky and Telescope will have a livestream event.
You can learn more about the planet Mercury here http://messenger.jhuapl.edu. NASA’s MESSENGER mission, which involved our very own Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory rewrote the textbooks on Mercury.
Be sure to see this month’s night sky sights when the clouds clear.
When it is dark you will see bright Jupiter high in the southeast sky all month. The four main moons of Jupiter http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/moons can be seen in binoculars and mimics the view Galileo would have had in his crude telescope in 1610 when he discovered them. NASA’s Juno spacecraft http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/where is closing in on the king of the planets and is due to arrive July 4, 2016.
If you are up late - around 11:00 p.m. - the Red Planet Mars and Saturn await your gaze. Mars will be closest to our planet on May 30th and it is stunning as a reddish-colored ‘star’ in the southeast sky. Do not confuse Mars with the reddish-colored star Antares that is almost directly below it - Mars will be much brighter. The Greek name Antares means ‘rival of Mars’ and this month you can really see why the star got its name.
Mars has several active and planned missions exploring it from orbit and on the surface http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/missions-to-mars.html . It is a fascinating world and in amateur sized telescopes actual features can be seen for the next several months. I hope to get some pictures to share with you.
Saturn is a yellowish-colored ‘star’ to the lower left of Mars. NASA’s Cassini mission https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html has been studying the ringed planet for 11 years and is still going strong.
Mars, Saturn and Antares make a beautiful triangle in the sky this month. If you have a dark sky you can see the gorgeous Milky Way to their lower left. The view will be best around 2:00 a.m. in the South over the next week before the Moon starts to light up the sky.
As you can see there is much to enjoy in the sky this month. I hope you can join me at Shenandoah National Park http://www.goshenandoah.com/activities-events/astronomy Peaks of Otter Lodge http://www.peaksofotter.com/Astronomy.aspx or Capon Springs and Farms http://www.caponsprings.net/news/capon-under-the-cosmos/ for one of my lectures and sky viewing sessions.
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