Mercury Transit 2016 Details by Santosh Takale

Mercury Transit of 09-05-2016, Must watch for Everyone. ( Don’t forget to protect
your Eyes):
Note : Some of the Data, Photos & Figures are taken from Internet Sources.
Mercury & Venus are called commonly called morning or evening star, though they are
planets. This is because they show their appearance only in these periods of the day and
shine or twinkle like star as happened to be little near the horizon. One of them, that is
Mercury has already started approaching Sun and it will pass the Sun on 9th
May 2016,
the event is called Mercury transit.
An occultation occurs when an apparently larger body passes in front of an apparently
smaller one. A transit occurs when an apparently smaller body passes in front of an
apparently larger one. An eclipse occurs when a body disappears or partially disappears
from view, either by an occultation, as with a solar eclipse, or by passing into the shadow
of another body, as with a lunar eclipse.
The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare
occurrence. As seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible. On
average, there are 13 transits of Mercury each century. But for century 2001-2100, there
are 14 Transits of Mercury, happening in May-2003, Nov-2006, May-2016, Nov-2019,
Nov-2032, Nov 2039, May-2049, Nov-2052, May-2062, Nov-2065, Nov-2078, Nov-2085,
May-2095, Nov-2098.
This Transit (09-05-2016) of Mercury is the longest Transit in duration and next Transit of
similar type will happen in 2095. Although the event will happen fourteen times this
century, the next one visible from India will be in 2032. Hence the 2016 transit is a great
opportunity to catch this mini-eclipse. Please, don't miss it.
The tiny inner planet Mercury will be seen passing across the Sun on 9th
May, 2016. The
event starts at about 4:32 pm and is visible all over India. The first contact occurs at 16:32
IST; however the entrance of the dot may go unnoticed since the contrast at the edge is
not sufficient enough. Within minutes the planet Mercury will appear as a tiny dot on the
Eastern limb of the solar disc and will become identifiable. You may also watch out for
other sunspots too that may be present. Mercury will appear as a dot on the solar disc
moving roughly from East to West. For an Indian observer this would mean that Mercury
will move from the "top" towards the "bottom" of the Sun as it moves towards the western
horizon. As the dot moves inwards the center of the Sun's image, the visibility will
improve. Mercury will be at a quarter of its path in front of the Sun at about 18:30 IST.
The principal events occurring during a transit are conveniently characterized by contacts,
analogous to the contacts of an annular solar eclipse. The transit begins with contact I at

Universal time 11:12:19 Hrs (India 16.32 Hrs), Contact II at 11:15:31 Hrs, Greatest Transit
at 14:57:26, Contact III at 18:39:14 Hrs and transit ends with Contact IV at 18:42:26 Hrs,
as shown in figure-1. Greatest transit is the instant when Mercury passes closest to the
Sun's center (i.e., minimum separation). At this time, the geocentric angular distance
between the center's of Mercury and the Sun will be 318.5 arc-seconds.
Figure -1 :
Figure above shows the path of Mercury across the Sun's disk. The contact times for any
given location may differ from the geocentric times by up to 2 minutes. This is due to the
effect of parallax since Mercury's 12 arc-second diameter disk may be shifted up to nearly
16 arc-seconds from its geocentric coordinates depending on the observer's exact
geographic position.
The transit will be widely visible from most of the Earth including the North & South
America, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Europe, Africa and much of Asia, as shown in
Figure 2. Transit will not be visible from eastern Asia, Japan, Indonesia, Australia and
New Zealand.
include eastern North and South America, the Atlantic Ocean, and Western Europe.
The transit begins before sunrise for observers in western North America. The transit
ends after sunset for Eastern Europe, Asia and most of Africa. Regions where the entire
transit is visible include eastern North and South America, the Atlantic Ocean, and
Western Europe.

During the 2016 transit Mercury has an apparent diameter of 12" (12 arc seconds). The
Sun's apparent diameter at this time of year is 31'.7 (i.e. 1900") which means that the
Sun's apparent disk is approximately (1900 ÷ 12) = 158 times larger than that of Mercury.
Since Mercury is only 1/158 of the Sun's apparent diameter, a telescope with a
magnification of 50x or more is recommended to watch this event. The telescope must be
suitably equipped with adequate filtration to ensure safe solar viewing. The visual and
photographic requirements for the transit are identical to those for observing sunspots and
partial solar eclipses.
Kepler made first prediction of Venus transit in 1627, it was about 1631’s event. French
astronomer Gassendi has observed first transit but it was of mercury on 7th November
1631. Immediate event of Venus transit in next month could not be observed by him as
that was not visible from Europe. The first transit of Venus was observed by British
astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks, who discovered the 8-year pairing of transits that Kepler
had missed because he (Kepler) had failed to account for the size of the Earth in his
calculations. William Crabtree was also with him on 4th December 1639 for observation.
Edmund Halley first realized that transits could be used to measure the Sun's distance,
thereby establishing the absolute scale of the solar system from Kepler's third law.
In contrast, transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating each pair.
Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are among the rarest of planetary
alignments. Till date only Eight such events have occurred since the invention of the
telescope (1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882, 2004 & 2012). The next transit of Venus

will occur in December 2117. Because Venus's orbit is considerably larger than
Mercury's, its period is also longer, making transits of Venus are much more rare. Transits
show a clear pattern of recurrence at intervals of 8, 121.5 and 8, 105.5 years. The
apparent diameters of Venus and the Sun are approximately 59 arc-seconds and 1900
arc-seconds respectively. This makes Venus only 1/32 of the Sun’s apparent diameter.
Transits, Occultation, Eclipse occur when these celestial bodies are in line with earth. All
these are sort of mini eclipse. The orbit of Venus is inclined 3.4° with respect to Earth's
orbit. The orbit of Moon is inclined 5.15° with respect to Earth's orbit. The orbit of Mercury
is inclined 7° with respect to Earth's orbit.
In past many attempts were made to observe transits, for that they visited far off places.
The only way to get to these places was by a long and difficult journey by wooden sailing
ship. Such journeys exposed travelers to considerable mortality from scurvy, disease, and
shipwreck long before you reached your destination. Despite these difficulties, the
importance of measuring the distance from the Earth to the Sun was such that for the first
time in recorded history astronomers from all over the world collaborated in an
international project to measure an astronomical event. By modern standards, the scale of
the enterprise can be compared to the space program: it required capital outlays from
governments, the cooperation of civilian and military authorities, and a few, brave
adventurers willing to travel far and risk life and limb for a common scientific goal. The
unfortunate Guillaume Le Gentil spent eight years travelling in an attempt to observe
either of the transits. His unsuccessful journey led to him losing his wife and possessions
and being declared dead.
By the mid-20th century, Venus Transits and Mars Parallaxes were supplanted by radar
echolocation and spacecraft Doppler-telemetry techniques. During the late 20th century,
direct radar measurements of the distances of Venus accumulated over 40 years helped
to refine the estimate of the Astronomical Unit to its modern value of
149,597,870.691±0.030 kilometers. Yes, that is not a typographical error: the AU really is
known to a precision of ±30 meters (roughly the width of an football field).
Indian mathematician, Venkatesh Ketkar also predicted Venus transit of 9th December
1874. Next transit after 6th June 2012 is of Mercury in 9th May 2016.
The transit gave scientists a number of research opportunities, which includes;
 Measurement of dips in a star's brightness caused by a known planet transiting a
known star (the Sun), will help astronomers when searching for exoplanets.

 Measurement of the apparent diameter of Planet during the transit, and comparison
with its known diameter. This will have given information on how to estimate
exoplanet sizes.
 The number of locations documenting the event will provide much data via parallax
that will generate more accurate measurements.
 Observation of the atmosphere of Planet simultaneously from Earth-based
telescopes and from the Planet hunting space probe. This will give a better
opportunity to understand the intermediate level of planet atmosphere than is
possible from either viewpoint alone, and should provide new information about the
climate of the planet.
 Spectrographic study of the atmosphere of Planet. The results of analysis of the
well-understood atmosphere of planet will be compared with studies of exoplanets
with atmospheres that are unknown.
 The Hubble Space Telescope used the Moon as a mirror to study the light reflected
from Venus to determine the makeup of its atmosphere. This may provide another
technique to study exoplanets.
Observing the Transit - Since the apparent diameter of Mercury is nearly 10 to 12 arc-
seconds, it is difficult to see without optical magnification as it crosses the Sun. The planet
appears to be only 1/158 of the Sun's apparent diameter so a telescope 50X or better will
offer a much more satisfying view. All binoculars and telescopes must be suitably
equipped with adequate filtration to ensure safe solar viewing. Never look directly at the
Sun, especially when using binoculars or a telescope. Direct sunlight can cause
permanent eye damage in seconds. For safe direct viewing of the Sun, #14 welder's glass
can be used, or a proprietary material known as Solar Screen.
The safest way to observe a transit of Mercury (or Venus) is to project the image of the
Sun through a refracting telescope on to a piece of white card (i.e. the image of the Sun is
projected backward through the telescope, from the main object glass through to the
eyepiece and on to the card).

Transits can also be observed safely through a telescope by attaching an aluminised
mylar solar filter to the front of the telescope, ahead of the object glass (always ensuring
beforehand that the filter has not been damaged in any way!!).
Lastly, I feel Transit, Occultation, Eclipse, Meteor Shower & similar Celestial
happenings/events are good means for social reform. These demonstrations can
eradicate superstitions related to them & also inculcate scientific temperament among
gullible masses. Everybody should use these opportunities, on personal, organizational or
media level. If you want to watch this transit please contact us. Please note, the cloudy
weather may affect the observation.
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I take this opportunity to invite you to Watch LIVE Mercury Transit-2016 & be a part of interactive session on
“Astronomy, Human Civilization & various Celestial Phenomenon” on 9th May 2016, 4:30 PM (16.30 Hrs) at
House No. 470, At & Post Shirdhon, Taluka-Panvel, District-Raigad, Mumbai-Goa Highway, Maharashtra-410221
{GPSC - 18.9266331, 73.1294258}. Please confirm your participation in advance by sending email to
vaishali2582@gmail.com / santoshatbarc@gmail.com
Address Link on web - http://www.slideshare.net/s_tacs/contact-details-map-of-takale-charitable-trustppsx
Regards.
Santosh Takale,
Scientific Officer, BARC
Ph - 0-9967584554.
santoshatbarc@gmail.com
Print only if essential.......SAVE TREES
" Go GREEN, Save Earth "
About the Santosh Takale :
He is senior Scientific Officer (Scientist – G) at Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai. He has done B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering & advance studies
in Nuclear Engineering at BARC, Mumbai. Certified and experienced NDT & Welding expert.
To inculcate Scientific Temper among masses, with his personal initiative, he has delivered more than 1450 lectures addressing 4, 50,000+ students,
teachers & general people.
He is Founder & Advisor of TAKALE CHARITABLE TRUST, TAKALE’s VIDNYAN GURUKUL, ICIT Computer Institute & Sky Watcher’s Association of
Raigad (SWAR). TCT Skill Development center. He is also honorary member of many oraganisations in technical & social field. He has been honoured with
many awards for his outstanding contribution in the field of science & technology as well as social field.
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Mercury Transit 2016 Details by Santosh Takale

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Mercury Transit 2016 Details by Santosh Takale