Monday, February 22, 2016

researched ToM events

Did some Transit of Mercury research today. ToM events are somewhat common or at least more common than Venus transits so they are not once-in-a-lifetime things.

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First, some hyperlinks. See the Transit of Mercury article at the amazing wikipedia, with some nice photos. Tony sent out a link from the Mercury catalog page by NASA. Of course, it gets into some of the math.

screen snapshot from Stellarium showing Mercury entering disc of Sun

The next one... This event will occur Monday 9 May 2016. Moon will be up. Venus is (8°) ahead of the Sun. This event starts early! Using Stellarium, I determined the timeline with approx. times, adjusted for the Carr Astronomical Observatory location, atop the Blue Mountains:

6:50 - Sun rise
7:13 - first contact, planet first touches the disc of Sun
7:16 - second contact, planet entirely inside disc of Sun
9:38 - Moon rise
12:48 - Venus at meridian
1:16 - Sun (and Mercury) at meridian
2:38 - third contact, about to leave Sun's disc
2:41 - fourth contact, done

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I checked the next few, based on an Ontario location, for visibility.

2019 Nov 11: Sunrise 8:00 AM, transit in progress. 1:00 PM done. Nearly in the middle of the Sun!

2032 Nov 13: Not visible.

2039 Nov 07: Not visible.

2049 May 07: Sunrise 7:00 AM. 1st & 2nd contact 7:08 AM. 1:45 PM done. About 1/3rd position.

2052 Nov 09: Not visible.

2062 May 10: 1st & 2nd contact 2:15 PM. In progress at sunset, 8:19 PM.

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Double checked with SkyTools Special Events tool...

2016 May 9 07:13, First Contact, Sep= +00°15'57", Alt= 12°
2016 May 9 07:17, Second Contact, Sep= +00°15'44", Alt= 13°
2016 May 9 10:58, Mid-transit, Sep= +00°05'23", Alt= 51°
2016 May 9 14:38, Third Contact, Sep= +00°15'44", Alt= 59°
2016 May 9 14:41, Last Contact, Sep= +00°15'56", Alt= 58°

2019 Nov 11 07:36, First Contact, Sep= +00°16'14", Alt= 4°
2019 Nov 11 07:38, Second Contact, Sep= +00°16'04", Alt= 4°
2019 Nov 11 10:20, Mid-transit, Sep= +00°01'14", Alt= 24°
2019 Nov 11 13:03, Third Contact, Sep= +00°16'04", Alt= 27°
2019 Nov 11 13:04, Last Contact, Sep= +00°16'14", Alt= 27°

2049 May 7 07:03, First Contact, Sep= +00°15'57", Alt= 10°
2049 May 7 07:07, Second Contact, Sep= +00°15'45", Alt= 11°
2049 May 7 10:24, Mid-transit, Sep= +00°08'27", Alt= 45°
2049 May 7 13:41, Third Contact, Sep= +00°15'45", Alt= 63°
2049 May 7 13:45, Last Contact, Sep= +00°15'57", Alt= 63°

2062 May 10 14:16, First Contact, Sep= +00°15'56", Alt= 61°
2062 May 10 14:20, Second Contact, Sep= +00°15'44", Alt= 61°
2062 May 10 17:36, Mid-transit, Sep= +00°08'42", Alt= 31°

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