Mercury's November 8 transit

[The Mangler]

November 8, 2006 Mercury will be visible from approx 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM EST as it crosses the face of the Sun.

Thought you might like to know if you didn't already.

Article here

[Blue Fire]

Yep, already knew about it, but thanks for the reminder! Do you know how large Mercury will appear in comparison to the sun? I just use binoculars to project the image of the sun onto paper and I can usually pick out most sunspots. So, in comparison to the average sunspot, do you know how Mercury will compare?

[The Mangler]

Not very big.

Originally Posted by Astronomy Magazine

Hans Schremmer captured this wonderful image of Mercury's transit from Moers, Germany (North 51° 26.557' East 6° 36.927') at 8:15 UT. He used an 8-inch Schmitt-Cassegrain (C-8), Thousand Oaks Optical Film Solar Filter, and a Canon AE-1 Camera with Fuji 200ISO Color Slide Film. The nose of the plane is pointing directly to Mercury's tiny, black dot. Hans Schremmer

[stuart]

It'll be about as large as a small sunspot. I think around 10 arcsec.

[Blue Fire]

Thanks, Mangler and Stuart! I should have read further down in the article and I did not at first take note of the airplane picture. In any case, it looks pretty small compared to sunspots I'm used to seeing and noticing with the binocs, but it does seem doable since the dot of Mercury will be moving across the surface much faster than any sunspot.

[dpab]

From where I am its starting around 12:12 pm ..for the afternoon.
Im not complaining ....but when I moved from North Vancouver...I traded in my umbrella for sun glass's.
But havent need them lately ...lots of cloud cover ....I will be putting in a word with the Big Guy for clear skies.
( when I was young I prayed for a new bike...then I realized prayer doesnt work like that ...so I stole one and asked forgiveness....lol)
Dave

[stuart]

Originally Posted by Blue Fire

Thanks, Mangler and Stuart! I should have read further down in the article and I did not at first take note of the airplane picture. In any case, it looks pretty small compared to sunspots I'm used to seeing and noticing with the binocs, but it does seem doable since the dot of Mercury will be moving across the surface much faster than any sunspot.

Yes, since sunspots take 14 days to move across the Sun's face, but this will take 5 hours, so it will be moving at a rate of about 0.1 arcsec per sec (0.5°=1800 arcsec, 5 hrs = 18,000 sec). So you should be able to see at least something with binoculars, and if you take pictures at 1/200 sec, there's no reason why it will appear blurry as a result of Mercury's movement.

[Blue Fire]

Well, looks like it's going to be a bust for me - it's overcast and spitting that wet stuff where I am.

[stuart]

It's sunny here. I plan on taking photos every 5 or 10 minutes to try to put together a movie.

[stuart]

I got 5 images every 5 minutes (though 5 every minute at the beginning) until the Sun set here at 3:45, or about 3 hrs 30 minutes into the 5-hr event. Now begins the very long task of processing the 20 GB of images.