Picture: Fred Espenak, NASA
On November 8th, we will witness a rare event. The planet Mercury will cross in front of the sun. You would think that this should happen all the time since Mercury is orbiting the sun just like we are -but it's more complicated than that. Mercury's orbit is on a slightly different plane than Earth's and most of the time it passes above or below the sun's disk. For an actual pass in front of the sun -known as a transit- our orbits have to be aligned just right.
After the transit of November 8th, you have to wait until the year 2016 to see it happen again. The good news is that you can safely witness the November 8th transit personally. Special solar filters which fit over the front of your telescope are available from astronomy retailers. If you don't have this option, you can also attend viewings in various locations. Night Sky Tours in the Durham Region will be providing opportunities for people in the GTA to see the Mercury Transit from a location in Oshawa. I'm sure there are other groups doing this too.
Please note that you MUST have special solar astronomy equipment to see this safely. Do not look at the sun without astronomical grade solar filters. Blindness can and will result without doing this properly.
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