From the United Kingdom the transit begins at 11:12 GMT (12:12pm BST), when the limb of Mercury appears to touch the limb of the Sun, and ends at 18:42 GMT (7:42pm BST) when the limb of the silhouetted planet appears to leave the Sun.
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Astronomers are in for a treat later this month when Mercury can be seen tracking its way across the face of the sun. Failure to use proper observing methods can result in permanent eye damage and severe retinal loss.
The last time a transit of Mercury happened was in November 2006. On May 9, Mercury will become visible to most of the globe as it directly passes between the Earth and the sun.
Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, May 1 – In a rare celestial development, Mercury will pass over the disk of the Sun in the afternoon hours, beginning from 4.32 pm and continuing till the midnight of May 9. The transit will be visible in full or in part throughout most of the Earth, with the exception of eastern Asia, Australia and Antarctica. As the earth catches up with Mars in our orbits, Mars will be only 47 million miles away; Jupiter is about 10 times farther, and getting fainter and smaller after its March 8 opposition.
Scientists from UCLA’s Institute for Planets and Exoplanets will offer free views of our solar system’s smallest planet through specially equipped telescopes on the morning of Monday, May 9. Observers in different locations will see the transit taking place at a slightly different time, as the planet will appear to take a slightly different path across the Sun. To learn the transit times for your area of the world, check out Tables 2 and 3 on EclipseWise.com’s “2016 Transit of Mercury” page. “It lets you see how tiny all the planets are in relation to this massive star we call the sun”. Severe retinal damange could take place. The most recent transit of Mercury visible in the United Kingdom was in 2003 (the 2006 event was visible in the western hemisphere), which was followed by even rarer transits of Venus in 2004 and 2012.
While transits of Venus are quite rare (they occur once every eight years and then don’t occur for another 105), that’s not the case for Mercury.
Those from the South and North America, eastern half of the Pacific, rest of Africa and most of Asia can only witness most of the transit, while those from Southeast Asia, Eastern Asia and Australasia will not be able to witness the event. French astronomer Pierre Gassendi relied on predictions made by Johannes Kepler to make the first observation of a planet transit when he observed Mercury passing in front of the sun in 1631, according to the RAS.
Solar filters can be purchased for the sunward end of most telescopes, but don’t try to use welder’s glass as a substitute: Only #14 is safe, and welders rarely use glass that dark. It will take about three minutes for the entire diameter of the planet to enter the sun. The same technique will be used by the European Space Agency’s PLATO mission, expected to launch in 2024.
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Point your scope at Jupiter in the evening sky on the next clear night.
