PT) at every site from which it is visible. Mercury's transit will begin within a minute of 2:12 p.m. For all of these locations, it will be morning, and with the exceptions of New Zealand, easternmost Australia and Tasmania, the sun will rise with Mercury already on its disk.įrom the United States, those situated to the east of a line running from roughly Bonners Ferry, Idaho, to El Paso in Texas will be able to see the beginning stages of the transit, as Mercury moves onto the lower left part of the sun.
Take note that since they are all located to the west of the International Date Line, eastern Asia, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand will experience the transit on the calendar date of Nov. The sun will be above the horizon for the entire transit over western sections of North America, much of the Pacific Ocean (including Hawaii), New Zealand and a small slice of eastern Australia and adjacent Tasmania.
The entire transit will be an east-to-west passage taking just 4 hours and 58 minutes. 8 event will be the second Mercury transit in this century, the first having occurred in May 2003. Nonetheless, only 14 transits of Mercury occur during the 21st century - or seven years apart on average. Those of Mercury are about 10 times more frequent. Transits of Venus happen less than twice a century (the next one is scheduled for June 6, 2012). Mercury and Venus are the only major planets we can ever see crossing the face of the sun. Such a phenomenon is known to astronomers as a transit. Observers throughout the Americas, as well as across eastern Asia, Australia and New Zealand, will be able to observe all or at least part of this striking celestial phenomenon with small telescopes, as the innermost planet slowly crosses in front of the solar disk. On that day, more than half the world will get to see a rare event: Mercury crossing the face of the sun at inferior conjunction.
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