Friends! Reminding you once more there will be a transit of Mercury across the sun TOMORROW, May 9th. This event lasts 7 1/2 hours beginning at 7:12 A.M. Eastern time. The last time this occurred was 2006 and it won't happen again until Nov. 2019.
A telescope with at least 60x magnification, and a solar filter over it is the ideal way to view the event, though there will be many observatories showing live streams. One of such can be found here: http://main.slooh.com/event/transit-of-mercury/
Western Europe, Eastern North America, and much of South America can see the entire transit. Most of the rest of the world may catch at least part of the event. Australia & east Asia is boned.
>> Just graduated college yesterday
>> Implying I'm going to wake up at 7 am to see a fucking transit
>> What kind of astrophysicist am I
>>8059279
I understand that's actually sadly common, for astrophysics or astronomy students to never once go out and actually look at the sky.
>>8059643
less than 2 hours
>>8059260
so uh... a mylar space blanket == solar filter right?
Hmmm Its 3 o clock in the morning and I was about go to bed but now I want to do shrooms.
Is this shroom worthy?
>>8059260
Well it's begun, but I can't see shit because it's rather overcast in my area, with a 70% chance of rain by 10:00. I may have to call it a wash and just go see Captain America.
Can't wait
I wish I had my own telescope to see it :C
>>8059310
I go out, have observatory of sorts.
I do not clean nearly enough for solar observation though.
It's rather cloudy where I am, but God willed a clearing just so I could see the touchdown.
There is jack shit in terms of sunspot activity right with. With exception of Mercury's silhouette and one itty bitty spot, it's an immaculate yellow orb.
> live in middle east
> no clouds the whole year
> today cloudy as fuck
Kill me
>>8061027
Me again. The sky opened up for a good 15 minutes before getting cloudy again. That's more than I got for the last Venus transit so I'm happy.
>>8061106
Don't worry, ISIS is on it.
So what kind of telescopes is /sci/ rockin? I've got pretty basic fare: A 4.5" dobsonian. It does the job for this sort of event just fine.
>>8061130
C8 main scope, getting close to upgrade soon.
>>8059266
I live in the region of miss.
I made a solar filter just for this...
Here's my attempt at a picture of the transit.
>>8061466
Pretty good attempt, sir. Looks rather similar to this one I took at the last Venus transit by just holding my friend's phone up to the telescope lens.
