I have attached a spreadsheet that I got from the NASA site and plugged in
Phoenix’ Latitude and Longitude. It indicates that we will miss stages I and
II (ingress) which start at 11:12 UT. We will be able to see max at 14:57 UT
and will continue to see the transit until 18:42 UT. Sunrise is at 12.31 UT so
we will be able to see the transit for more than six hours.
Pete Turner
From: pasmembers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pasmembers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
On Behalf Of Alex Vrenios
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2016 3:20 PM
To: pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pasmembers] Re: Transit of Mercury this spring
The first NASA site you referenced says the UTC time is 1457Z which is, as you
say, 7:57AM here. If you look at my table this time corresponds to the time of
“maximum transit,” when Mercury is in the middle of the solar disk. We will
only see about half of this event from our location.
Note also that NAA never says what their times mean. I even followed the link
on that page and it still didn’t define their meaning.
Alex
On Jan 6, 2016, at 1:21 PM, Terri <starstuff@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm having difficulty with the charts
the site: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/transit.html
shows 2:57pm which -7 is 7:57am
but the chart Alex has in his above email says
11:14am and -7 would be 4:14am
We can do the 7:57 time frame, with an hour set up before hand, but
there's no way PVCC would let us set up at 3:14am for the event.
Ideas?
What do you see for the actual start time of the event?
and then an hour before for set up.
Am i reading it wrong?
Terri
This site says 11:12 universal time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Mercury
This site says 11:12 UT
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/catalog/MercuryCatalog.html
This site says 11:12 UT http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2015/pdf/1327.pdf
this site didn't say what time, but if it started at 11:12UT, which is -7
4:12am AZ time, then the transit is already in progress when we are setting up
at PVCC.
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/transits/xST_GoogleMap3.php?Trt=+20160509 ;
<http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/transits/xST_GoogleMap3.php?Trt=+20160509&Acc=2>
&Acc=2
This site http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/Mercury2016.pdf is totally ;
different, it says it starts at 9:11am - 7 = 2:11am.
If no one can agree, how do we know which site is accurate?
On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 12:50 PM, Terri <starstuff@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sam, May 9, Monday
Would 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
Attachment:
MercuryTransit2.xls
Description: MS-Excel spreadsheet
