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I found a Nasa web page with some useful data about the transit of Mercury. Much of it is pretty technical but there's some useful factoids there to share with the public at large on Monday. Note in particular the eccentricity of Mercury's orbit.
I came across it when trying to find out when transits usually happen, bearing in mind that Mercury and Earth have to be positioned where their orbital planes intersect (and therefore, by definition, be lined up with the Sun). It turns out that, give or take a few days, transits of Mercury take place in early May or mid-November.
Posted : 05/05/2016 8:17 am
Thanks for this Andy. I was not up to working out the relative sizes of the Sun / Mercury from Earth but thanks to NASA I now know it will be 1/158th of the size this Month.
Heres an image with a representation of Mercury to scale. Be careful, you might miss it!
Solar Example with Mercury by Rupert Smith, on Flickr
Posted : 05/05/2016 11:46 am
Topic starter
That photo really does make you think that, above all else, Mercury is hot.
Posted : 05/05/2016 12:01 pm
...but what a sunrise
Posted : 05/05/2016 12:05 pm
Look at the size of that prominence in comparison to Mercury - looks to be about 9x bigger!
Posted : 05/05/2016 12:08 pm
I found a Nasa web page with some useful data about the transit of Mercury.
This is very useful, Andy. Thanks.
Interesting to see that this is the most favourable transit for viewing from the UK since May 1832! In every other case since, either the start or finish of the transit has not been visible from the UK (or, at least, the Sun has been very low down... particularly the November transits), or has been quite short in duration.
Current weather forecast is showing sunny skies in the afternoon, with heavy rain in the evening. Hmmm... I think we better bring some umbrellas 🙂
Posted : 06/05/2016 11:31 am
Topic starter
this is the most favourable transit for viewing from the UK since May 1832!
I think you've just jinxed the weather 😉
Posted : 06/05/2016 1:56 pm
I think you’ve just jinxed the weather
Please can we all do an unjinx weather dance now... The weather reports that I've seen aren't looking too favourable for Greenwich at the moment 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Posted : 08/05/2016 12:32 pm
Oh no, you're right, a huge blanket of cloud sweeping over south England 🙁 and it was so glorious today!
But clouds do break up. Also, much of the cloud layers are thin so sometimes the sun can penetrate that. 7.5 hours...surely fate cant be that horrible to not give us even a glimpse! Good luck guys, sorry not be there.
Posted : 08/05/2016 11:30 pm
