Follow the Transit of Mercury with STARS4ALL

Figure 1. Black drop effect during contact inside the transit of Venus June 2004. Although the effect is less visible in the transits of Mercury it can also be seen just in the second and third contact (credits J.C. Casado starryearth).
Figure 1. Black drop effect during contact inside the transit of Venus June 2004. Although the effect is less visible in the transits of Mercury it can also be seen just in the second and third contact (credits J.C. Casado starryearth).
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The European project STARS4ALL, in collaboration with the sky‐live.tv website, will conduct a live broadcast of the phenomenon from Tenerife and Iceland. STARS4ALL will also offer educational activities for students.

On May 9, 2016, around noon, the planet Mercury will start to cross the disk of the Sun on a journey to be completed in just over seven hours.

The transits of inner planets such as Venus and Mercury are rarer than eclipses of the Sun and Moon. While transits of Venus are extraordinarily unusual phenomena ‐ occurring on average twice in a century‐ transits of Mercury are more frequent. On average we have 13 Mercury transits  per  century, which  occur  in the months  of May or November.  The  last transit was that of Venus in June 2012. We had a transit of Mercury in November 2006. But, this event was not visible in Europe. The last visible transit of Mercury from Europe was in May 2003 (see figure 4) and the next will occur in November 2019, which will be partially visible in Europe.

The transit of Mercury next May 9 will be completely visible in Western Europe, the US east coast and in almost all Latin America (see map shown in figure 2).

The  STARS4ALL  project  in  collaboration  with  various  institutes  and  organizations,  will coordinate  a  live broadcast to watch the event with solar telescopes  and digital cameras. Videos  and pictures of transit will be broadcasted  live on  internet (collaboration with the portal sky‐live.tv) from Tenerife, La Palma and Fuerteventura (Canary Islands) and Iceland. There will be live commentary in Spanish and English during broadcasts.

Miquel Serra‐Ricart, astronomer of the Institute of Astrophysics of Canary Islands (Instituto de  Astrofísica  de  Canarias,  IAC)  and  person  in  charge  of  broadcast, said:  "The transit  of Mercury is a good opportunity to organize educational activities in schools. It is a simple phenomenon to observe but governed by fundamental laws of physics. It is important to recall that the observation must be done following strict security measures so that the sun does not damage our eyes.”

Black drop

Just  after  the  internal  contact  between  the  discs  of  the  Sun  and  Mercury  the  apparent surface of the planet seems to remain connected for a few seconds to the edge of the solar disk, deformed to adopt the appearance of a black drop. This phenomenon is repeated just before the last internal contact (Fig. 1). The effect, known as "black drop" prevents precise timing of the moments of contact between the disk of the planet and the Sun. This is the main  reason  why  observations  ‐especially  in  Venus  transits‐,  that  were  conducted  to determine the distance between the Sun and Earth, present a certain degree of uncertainty. The  phenomenon  is  mainly  due  to  the  effects  of  atmospheric  turbulence  of  our  planet (which in astronomical terms is known as "seeing") and the quality and size of the optical instruments used.

Broadcast

Three live connections  will be made ​​with  a total duration of 30 minutes coinciding with the most interesting moments:

Connection1: Mercury enters the Solar disc (First / Second Contact 10 minutes) May 9, 2016, from 11:10 to 11:20 UT (13:10 to 13:20 CET; 12:10 to 12:20 Local‐Tenerife).

Connection2: Мaximum Transit (10 minutes) May 9, 2016, from 14:55 to 15:05 UT (16:55 to 17:05 CET, 15:55 to 16:05 Local‐Tenerife)

Connection3: Mercury exits the solar disc (Third / Fourth Contact 10 minutes) May 9, 2016, from 18:35 to 18:45 UT (20:35 to 20:45 CET, 19:35 to 19:45 Local‐Tenerife)

Note: UT ‐ Universal time ; CEST‐ Central European Summer Time.

The portal will be kept updated from May 9 at 11:00 UT (13:00 CEST, Madrid) and every five minutes the image of the Sun (and Mercury) will be updated from the different points of observation.  All  images  collected  will  be  immediately  available  for  use  in  educational activities.

STARS4ALL is a project funded by the European Union H2020 Programme under agreement number 688135. STARS4ALL is composed of 8 institutions (UPM, CEFRIEL, SOTON, ECN, ESCP Europe,  IAC,  IGB,  UCM)  from  6  countries.  STARS4ALL  project  will  develop  a  collective awareness platform to encourage citizens to care for and preserve the natural darkness of European nightscapes.


Press contacts: http://www.stars4all.eu/index.php/press­office/

Press release of the live broadcasting of the transit of Mercury from the  Canary Island Observatories: http://www.iac.es/divulgacion.php?op1=16&id=1061&lang=en

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