Skywatchers: Mercury Transverses the Sun May 9, 2016

We're sharing a post that came across one of our homeschooling lists.

Please follow the provided links and the contacts below for more information.

Thanks
Straff

On Monday May 9, 2016, from 7:12 am EST to 2:42 pm EST, Mercury will traverse the face of the sun in a rare occurrence.

The next ones will be  November 11, 2019 and November 13,  2032!  http://eclipsewise.com/oh/tm2016.html

It will be relatively small (like a small sunspot), so special solar observing techniques and magnification using a solar telescope is important.  You won’t be able to see it using pinhole projection, for example, or by using the dark "eclipse glasses" - the dark spot will just be too small.   Use a "sunspotter", or binocular projection, or special solar filters on binoculars or telescopes. 

Here is more information and some safe techniques:

http://earthsky.org/tonight/mercury-transit-may-9-2016-how-to-watch?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=efbbce3fbc-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-efbbce3fbc-393847933 

There will be places you can watch online:
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-provide-coverage-of-may-9-mercury-transit-of-the-sun

Here’s a diagram of the solar system at the time of the transit:
http://www.nakedeyeplanets.com/mercury-transit-2016-orbits-labelled.png

There will be a live SDO feed at http://mercurytransit.gsfc.nasa.gov

http://sdoisgo.blogspot.com/2016/04/mercury-transit-in-8-days.html

If you live in Houston, WEATHER PERMITTING, we will have the Rice campus observatory open from 10 am - 1pm.  We will have a 8inch telescope with a solar filter and an h-alpha solar telescope.

For more details about our open house see:
http://events.rice.edu/index.cfm?EventRecord=29634

Enjoy!!  

…"Doctor Pat"

Prof. Patricia H. Reiff 
Associate Director for Outreach, Rice Space Institute
Rice University MS108, Houston, TX 77251-1892
email:  reiff@rice.edu       (713)348-4634 
www:  http://space.rice.edu/reiff

    "Why does man want to go to the Moon? 

      ... Why does Rice play Texas?"..JFK, Rice Stadium, 1962

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