Mercury Transit
(AKA: holy crap! Another post!)

I saw a partial solar eclipse when I was in seventh grade. I saw it projected on a wall through a piece of cardboard with a hole in it and only for a few seconds, so everyone in the class could have a turn.

Until the day I see a total eclipse or a transit of Venus, yesterday's transit of Mercury will likely remain the coolest thing I have ever seen. The planet Mercury, seen as a tiny and perfectly round black speck creeping across the face of the sun, is an incredible sight to behold. A lunar eclipse has nothing in this celestial fireworks show. Sadly, the photo to the left (Mercury is the tiny dot in the lower left) seems to barely justify my excitement. It is proof that a transit really is something you have to see to fully appreciate.

The transit lasted about five hours, but, in the Midwest, the sun set before it finished, thus limiting our viewing time to the first four hours. Due to the fact that I live in perpetually cloudy western Michigan, I only was able to watch about thirty percent of the event before clouds permanently obscured the sun. I also missed first and second contact while I set up my equipment. Nonetheless, the part that I was able to experience was awesome. On a side note, it annoys me that today, when there are exactly zero once in a decade astronomical events taking place, there is not a cloud to be seen. Michigan sucks sometimes.

Transits of Mercury happen, on average, every seven or eight years and another will not occur until 2016. Transits of Venus are, I'm told, much more impressive on account of Venus being larger and closer to the Earth. These happen much less frequently, coming along in pairs separated by 120 years or so. The next one is scheduled for 2012, so, assuming clear skies, yesterday's events will most likely be dethroned. Unless something truly spectacular and unexpected; a huge naked eye comet for example, appears in the next six years, our smallest planet can expect to enjoy a six year reign at the top of my 'cool' list.

I made some interesting discoveries while observing the transit. First, the roof my my garage makes, if you are looking south, a wonderful observatory. Second, the wireless network that Christian installed at our house delivers a quite strong signal to the garage roof, which makes me happy that our network is secure. And lastly I found that a #80 Blue filter greatly enhances solar observation. It turns the sun a very pale gray and delivers fantastic contract between the solar disk and dark features like sunspots and transiting planets.