Listen Up Mercury transit tomorrow - us and western europe

Channel Hopper

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The event begins at just after 12:35 pm GMT, when the tiny silhouette of Mercury moves onto the solar disc. It then moves pretty centrally across the face of the Sun, reaching its mid point at 15:19. At this time the Sun is just a few degrees above the horizon as seen from the UK, so observations after this will require a very low south-western horizon. Although the transit continues until after 6 pm, from the UK the sun sets some time after 4 pm (depending on your location – the sun sets at 4 pm from John o’ Groats and 4:44 pm from Land’s End, with other locations somewhere in between).

The next one is thirteen years away.

 

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Checking the weather for down south for tomorrow, it could be watchable using the binocular/piece of paper technique again.
 

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WellI did try, there was an opportunity at around 13.40 yesterday and whilst I was able to project a disc of the sun onto the kitchen wall, it wasn't cloudless enough to show the planet's shadow.

Another fourteen years awaits.
 

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And looking at the size compared to the overall disc, I doubt I could have seen the shadow, even under clear conditions.

.

I'm sure the dot was somewhat larger sixteen years ago.
 
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