The transit of Mercury is coming, and we’ll have detail nearer to the time. Here is the scene at the dawn of transit day.
The picture is for London, where the transit will begin nearly 5 hours later. In most of North America, the transit has already begun when the Sun and Mercury rise into view.
The Sun is exaggerated twice in size. The arrows through it and Mercury show their movement over 5 days, against the starry background. For fun, we show that starry background, as if you could see it through the sunlit atmosphere.
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor. One way: right-click, and choose “View image”, then enlarge. Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.
This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
On Friday morning, Nov 8, the forecast for Monday the 11th for central Virginia is “partly cloudy”, so I am hopeful that I’ll be able to see at least part of the transit as Mercury passes “under the Sun”, to use a phrase that Guy is fond of LOL