We invite everyone to see the upcoming Transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun.

The inner planets (Mercury and Venus) can pass between the Earth and the Sun and, sometimes, they can be seen as little black dots traversing the face of the Sun over several hours. This is fairly rare for Mercury and very rare for Venus (next Venus transit is not till 2117). This is because although the two planets pass between the Earth and the Sun often, the planes of their orbit about the Sun do not coincide exactly with the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Thus, most of the time, when they are directly between us and the Sun, they are a little above or a little below the solar disc. Once in a while the planes coincide and you can see the planets moving slowly (over the course of several hours) over the face of the Sun. The next time this will happen for Mercury is Monday, November 11th from 7:36 AM to 1:04 PM.

Weather permitting, we will be following this event from outside the Physics Building along Sanford Drive. We will set up a telescope with a solar filter so that the public will be able to safely view the event.

You cannot see the transit with the naked eye, and you must not look at the Sun either with the naked eye or with any optical equipment that is not equipped with the proper solar filters. We will be set up west of the Physics Building with a small telescope from about 9:30 AM (the transit will have already begun and Mercury will be silhouetted on the solar disc) until about 1:05 PM when the transit will have ended.

The next Mercury transit will not be until 2032, so come join us for this rare event!

More Resources:

A Teachable Moment in the Sky: The Transit of Mercury