Mercury Transit Sun On May 9, View It Carefully

A rare Mercury transit will take place on May 9. However, those lucky enough to experience it should not view it using pinhole projectors. According to astronomical reports, the celestial occurrence should be viewed by projecting the image of the sun using binoculars or a filtered telescope. The sun should not be looked at directly during the transit.

The transit, which will either end with sunset or start at sunrise will be visible, in part or full, nearly all over the Earth. Keen watchers will be able to view it from most of South America, the western side of North and West Africa, nearly the whole of Western Europe, eastern part of North America, most of Asia and eastern half of the Pacific. However, it won't be visible to observers in Australia as well as eastern and southeastern Asia.

The celestial event will start at 7:12:19 a.m. EDT or 11:12:19 GMT in the United Kingdom. The astronomical event will last for seven and a half hours in the UK. Mercury will look like a small dot in the lower part of the sun during the transit, and will appear different from the sunspot groups on the sun's left and right side limbs. Incidentally, a Mercury transit occurs when it passes directly between the Earth and the Sun. The occurrence takes place only around 13 times in a century.

The last mercury transit occurred in 2006, and the next two such astronomical events will take place in 2019 and 2032. The Mercury transit usually happens in early May or November. Those who can't view the transit live can see it online as many websites with live streams will broadcast it. NASA will stream a live program on NASA TV and its Facebook page. If you want to share your own experiences of the transit on Twitter, use the hashtag #MercuryTransit2016.