Transit of Venus on 8 June 2004

Mercury Transit

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Mercury Transit November 8th 2006

On November 8th 2006 the planet Mercury will cross the suns disk as seen from the Earth. It will cut into the solar disk at about 19:12 in the evening and will disappear at about 00:10am and so will not be visible in daylight from Great Britain.

Transit of Mercury on 8th November 2006
External Ingress:	19:12 UT
Internal Ingress:	19:14 UT
Maximum:	21:41 UT
Internal Egress:	00:08 UT
External Egress:	00:10 UT

It is very much like a Luna eclipse. The planet Mercury passes in front of the Sun. Of course the moon as seen from Earth is almost the same size as the Sun so most, if not all the light from the Sun is blocked out so it is very difficult to miss a Luna Eclipse. Mercury appears very small (Mercury is about 6.0'' and the Sun is about 941.1'') as seen from Earth, so as it passes across the Sun it will only be seen as small object and can only be seen with a good solar filter and a telescope as Mercury is very small and there is little chance of seeing it with the unadded eye.

Looking at the Sun at any time is potentially dangerous and can result in serious eye damage or blindness. The safest way to view the Sun is indirectly using a projection method.
You may view the Sun directly only through a special filter made for safe solar viewing. If you are not certain a filter is approved and safe or you have any other doubts - DO NOT USE IT.

As you can see from the list below, transits of Mercury across the Sun's disk are quite rare, (About 13 to 14 time a century) but not as rare as Venus Transits

Below is a list of the most recent Mercury transits:

May 1970
November 1973
November 1986
November 1993
November 1999
May 2003
November 2006
May 2016

For a full list try http://www.projectpluto.com/transits.htm

Mercury orbits the Sun in 88 days, so several times a year it passes between the Earth and the Sun. When this happands it is called an inferior conjunctions. (Superior conjunction occurs when Mercury is on the far side of the Sun.) Because Mercury’s orbit is tilted with respect to the plane of the ecliptic Mercury usually passes to the North or South of the Sun as it goes by. However, if inferior conjunction occurs around May 8 or November 10, Mercury will be on or very near the ecliptic as it passes between us and the Sun, and thus Mercury will pass right in front of the Sun.

The two images below show the area of earth that can see the transit of Mercury at the beginning of the transit and at the end. This will give you some idea if you can see it or not.
05:13 UT	10:31 UT

This diagram shows the approximate path Mercury will take across the Sun.

Transit of Mercury on 8th - 9th June 2006
External ingress:	19:11:58 UT
Internal Ingress:	19:13:52 UT
Maximum:	21:40:59 UT
Internal Egress:	00:08:11 UT
External Egress:	00:10:04 UT