Wednesday 23-10-2019 - 19:14

On Monday 11th November 2019, Mercury will transit the Sun... What is a transit? A transit is where a planet (such as Mercury in this case) crosses the Sun's disk as viewed from Earth. This has the effect of blocking a small amount of the Sun, visible to us as a black spot that moves across. Happening about twice in every 10-15 years, this event is quite rare due to the Earth's orbit and Mercury's orbit around the Sun being slightly skewed from one another, so a transit is only visible at one of the 2 parts of the orbits where they form a perfect line with the Sun. The last transit was in 2016, and the next won't be until 2032!

We will attempt to observe this event throughout, and will be in Alexandra Square with 2 telescopes connected to laptops, where you are very welcome to come along and see, ask questions etc. We will also be recording and livestreaming the entire event, which will be on our YouTube channel throughout! The transit will begin at 12:35pm, and will continue on past sunset at 4.30pm, though we anticipate the buildings will obscure it by then!

Unfortunately, in Lancaster the past 20 years it has been cloudy 80% of the time. The chances do not look great for observing, and should it be too cloudy we will not be observing! We will give more details as the weather forecast gets more accurate closer to the time on our Facebook page and Twitter. 

Can you see the transit yourself? Yes! Although this is highly dangerous, and we advise that you DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN WITHOUT PROPER FILTERS. The Sun is very bright, and can do serious damage to your eyes! To watch the transit yourself you can buy a suitable filter, which can be attached to any pair of binoculars or small telescope. We recommend this, which can be cut to any size necessary. 

Got your own solar eclipse glasses? These could be used, though it is unlikely you will see Mercury very well with these alone. It could be viable to hold this up to your phone camera and zoom in to possibly see it better - of course this is not guaranteed, though those with a Huawei P30 may stand a decent chance.

Does a transit happen to other planets as well? Yes! It happens to both Mercury and Venus, though for Venus it is much much rarer happening twice every ~100 years. The last Venus transit was in 2012, with the one before that in 2004, and the next one occuring in December 2117!