Mercury Transit Now!

The Transit of Mercury is happening right now here on May 9th, 2016.  If you want to watch live, check out the NASA feeds from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Credit: NASA/SDO

For the small size of Mercury, it makes a pretty stark contrast against the bright Sun, and is easy to see, even in a small telescope.  Of course, you need a solar filter.  Don’t look directly at the Sun without proper eye protection, you won’t see Mercury and you’ll damage your vision.

I managed to snag a photo on my phone through a small telescope.  Please excuse the lack of quality since it was shot on potato.

Transit of Mercury, on potato.
Transit of Mercury, on potato.

 

2 thoughts on “Mercury Transit Now!

    1. The reddish colour you see on a quarter Moon is likely because of the atmosphere. The air we breathe is very good at scattering blue light, but not red. So sunlight, made of all the colours of the rainbow, reflects off the Moon, hits the atmosphere, and only the redder light makes it through, while blue light scatters away. This is also why the Sky is blue. The reason the Moon only looks red near the horizon is because it’s light is passing through a lot more atmosphere than when it is overhead.

      Thanks for the question.

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