Stargazing Witness the Transit of Mercury: Nov 11, 2019

[Andy Resnick]

For those so inclined:

https://Earth'sky.org/tonight/transit-of-mercury-on-november-11-2019

 

[davenn]

not visible from Australia

 

[OmCheeto]

Crossing my fingers for nice weather.

 

[Vanadium 50]

not visible from Australia

Neither was the last one.
Or the one before that for 90% of the country (however, was visible from the east coast).

It's a conspiracy, I tells ya!

 

[jtbell]

It’s supposed to be partly cloudy here tomorrow morning. I’ll get out my binoculars and tripod, set up a “projector” like I did for the transit of Venus several years ago, and keep my fingers crossed.

I hope Mercury’s disk is big enough to show up clearly with these crude optics. Venus was rather fuzzy.

 

[OmCheeto]

It’s supposed to be partly cloudy here tomorrow morning. I’ll get out my binoculars and tripod, set up a “projector” like I did for the transit of Venus several years ago, and keep my fingers crossed.

I hope Mercury’s disk is big enough to show up clearly with these crude optics. Venus was rather fuzzy.

Guessing our definitions of "fuzzy" are a bit different.

After scratching my head, as to how you turned a pair of binoculars into some kind of theatrical device, I picked up my own, and realized that I had not a clue how binoculars worked.

Story, of my life.

 

[jtbell]

No joy.

Too many trees on the east side of my house, so I drove over to the college. Then the sun was high enough in the sky that I couldn’t get enough distance between the top of the tripod and the ground. The image was too small and too fuzzy to resolve Mercury’s disk.

The Venus transit was in late afternoon, the sun was lower in the sky, and I could get more distance to the screen.

Maybe I’ll still be around for the next transit in what, 2049 (when I’ll be 95)?

 

[cosmik debris]

It’s supposed to be partly cloudy here tomorrow morning. I’ll get out my binoculars and tripod, set up a “projector” like I did for the transit of Venus several years ago, and keep my fingers crossed.

I hope Mercury’s disk is big enough to show up clearly with these crude optics. Venus was rather fuzzy.

Wait until night time, it may be less cloudy.

Cheers

 

[OmCheeto]

I gave it my best effort.
Clouds, wind, and trees did their best to discourage me, but I persevered, and may or may not have captured evidence of the transit.

hmmm...

When will be the next time we have a Venus and Mercury transit?

 

[Vanadium 50]

When will be the next time we have a Venus and Mercury transit?

In about the year 70,000.

 

[jtbell]

View attachment 252700

If that accurately reflects the angular sizes of Mercury and Venus during their transits, it's no wonder I wasn't able to see anything yesterday!

 

[OmCheeto]

If that accurately reflects the angular sizes of Mercury and Venus during their transits, it's no wonder I wasn't able to see anything yesterday!

Makes me wonder how they did this 390 years ago, given that we've all this fancy stuff sitting around. I really enjoyed reading your June 5, 2012 post. This morning I've spent 4 hours researching all the players around the "transit fever" era.

As far as I can tell, they all used camera obscuras.

Numbers in the middle of the matrix are everyones ≈ages
Green background indicates who witnessed the event.​

It's interesting that the only name I would have recognized 3 days ago, would have been Huygens.

Shout out to young Horrocks, whose name made it into Newton's Principia.
Newton was minus 4 years old in 1639.

Readings I found entertaining:

Nature​

November 7, 1931 article on Gassendi and the Transit of Mercury​

​

The Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire​

JEREMY SHAKERLEY (1626-1655?) ASTRONOMY, ASTROLOGY AND PATRONAGE IN CIVIL WAR LANCASHIRE ​

 

[sophiecentaur]

Something that may not have occurred to people as they watched the phenomenon is that the surface of Mercury that you are seeing is at about -180°C, compared with nearly 5600°C for the Sun, in the background. That's a pretty effective sunshade.

 

[OmCheeto]

Shout out to young Horrocks, whose name made it into Newton's Principia.
Newton was minus 4 years old in 1639.

Just checked a semi-searchable English translation of the Principia.
Newton mentioned him twice!

Page 446: Our countryman, Horrox, was the first who advanced the theory of the moon's moving in an ellipsis about the Earth placed in its lower focus.​

​

Page 524: Lastly, from hence it is that the planets appear so small in the disk of the sun, being lessened by the dilated light. For to Hevelius, Galletius, and Dr. Halley, Mercury did not seem to exceed 12" or 15"; and Venus appeared to Mr. Crabtrie only 1' 3"; to Horrox but 1' 12"; though by the mensurations of Hevelius and Hugenius without the sun's disk, it ought to have been seen at least 1' 24".​

ps. Anyone know who the heck Galletius is/was?
pps. And don't even get me started on "Dr. Halley", as there's a bit in the Principia about a 575 year period comet, with all manner of births and deaths associated with it.
ppps. I may have embellished.