Whatever Jenny wants is fine with me.Sam
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-------- Original message --------
From: Terri <starstuff@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: 01/06/2016 12:50 PM (GMT-07:00)
To: PAS Members ListServ <pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [pasmembers] Re: Transit of Mercury this spring
Sam, May 9, MondayWould you prefer BMC or Main campus?I'm sure Loretta would be
fine with a viewing up at BMC, if you want it there.Let me know, and i'll get
it set up.Terri
On Sat, Dec 12, 2015 at 10:48 PM, insanas <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The last time we had a Mercury transit we held a PAS solar viewing at PVCC. May
9th will be a Monday morning. I hope we can schedule a sImliar event. We have
solar scopes.Bob Ewing and Terri, what do you think?Kevin could do a press
release like the one he did in Sept for the Lunar eclipse. If we can"t hold it
at PVCC, we could have it in a nearby park depending on whether we open it up
to the public at large. Any ideas? Sam
Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
-------- Original message --------
From: Alex Vrenios <axv@xxxxxxx>
Date: 12/12/2015 10:23 PM (GMT-07:00)
To: pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pasmembers] Re: Transit of Mercury this spring
Thanks Kevin!
The Astronomical League had a Venus Transit certificate and pin and they are
planning to do the same with this one. We are required to take some data,
however. This will probably be the times you observed the “contact” points, but
the AL says more details are forthcoming…
They did have a list of the contact points and some other information:
---
The next planet to transit the sun is the planet Mercury on May 9, 2016.
Details on transit are available from NASA on this site:
http://http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/transit.html
Note that for those of us in the eastern United States, the entire transit will
be visible. For those in the western United States, the transit will be already
in progress at sunrise, so we will not be able to observe the entire event.
Timings for the contacts are:
Event UT
Contact I 11:14, May 9, 2016
Contact II 11:17, May 9, 2015
Maximum Transit 14:58, May 9, 2015
Contact III 18:39, May 9, 2015
Contact IV 18:42, May 9, 2015
Definition of contact points:
• Contact I: when the leading edge of the planet first touches the
edge of the Sun.
• Contact II: when the planet is initially completely on the disk of
the Sun.
• Maximum Transit: when the planet is at maximum transit (the middle).
• Contact III: when the leading edge of the planet first reaches the
far edge of the Sun.
• Contact IV: when the planet is initially completely off the disk of
the Sun.
Mercury is small and so far from Earth and its silhouette is visible only with
magnification, but be sure to use proper filters to protect your eyes.
—
I look forward to this event and hope to have the proper filters, etc.,
necessary to enjoy it. Maybe we’ll have a group viewing?
Alex
On Dec 12, 2015, at 9:43 PM, kjwitts@xxxxxxx wrote:
On May 9th, 2016, there will be a partial transit of Mercury across the Sun.
It will be a full transit from the East coast, but only partial here in
Arizona.
The transit runs from 11:12 am to 6:42pm UTC, which is, I believe, 7 hours
ahead of us here in Phoenix.
We should be able to view it from sunrise until 11:42 am in Phoenix, provided
that it's a clear day.
I'll be watching. The next one is in 2019.
Kevin
