Three things to know about the transit of Mercury across the Sun Monday – francetv info

This is a spectacle that only happens 13 or 14 times a century. Monday, May 9, Mercury, the smallest planet in the solar system, will pass between the Earth and the sun. For several hours, fans can follow the path of Mercury, which will appear as a small black disk moving in front of the star.

The phenomenon will begin at 1:12 p.m. (Paris time) and will end at 20:42 (Paris time). The time will vary slightly depending on location. In France, the phenomenon will be visible as long as the weather is favorable. What precautions to take? How to see the phenomenon? And what does it look like? Here’s what to know.

What precautions intruments and what to watch?

It is important to follow the safety instructions. Look at the Sun directly without protection can cause permanent eye damage. Special glasses for solar eclipses will be of no use because the planet is too small. “It takes an astronomical instrument to magnify the image of the Sun” says Pascal Descamps, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory.

Amateur astronomers can use glasses and telescopes provided protection by appropriate sunscreens.

According to Pascal Descamps , “the easiest way to see Mercury will be safe to use solarscope” , a sort of cardboard box with a lens with a lens, coupled with a small convex mirror. It can be observed safely the Sun by projecting its reversed image on a screen. With solarscope, the Sun have a diameter of 12 centimeters and Mercury will 0.75 millimeters.

How to see online?

If you are not equipped or if you’re stuck in the office, several websites offer live video broadcasts of. This is the case of NASA, the European Space Agency or of the Paris Observatory.

What can be observed?

Visually, “Mercury will appear to nibble one the edges of the sun then pass through it very slowly before emerging on the other side “ says Pascal Descamps. This is “rare because it requires almost perfect alignment of the Sun, Mercury and Earth,” he said.

Still unexplored, mysterious Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and is located at an average distance of 58 million km from it. Small (its diameter is only 4780 kilometers), it goes around the Sun in 88 days. It happens every 116 days between the Earth and our star. But because of the inclination of its orbit around the sun relative to Earth’s orbit, it seems to mostly be above or below the sun.

therefore, the transits of Mercury across the Sun are infrequent: there are 13 or 14 per century. The last occurred ten years ago. The next will be in November 2019, in November 2032 and May 2049.

This is a French scholar, Pierre Gassendi, who observed for the first time in 1631 a transit of Mercury before the Sun. This transit was predicted some years before by Johannes Kepler, who died in 1630 before he could see it.

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