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Space Science

2003 Transit of Mercury 124

Posted by michael from the transit-strike dept.
angkor writes "It is happening today (all day in Asia)! NASA's SOHO page, Fred Espenak's 'Transit of Mercury' site, and live webcasts of the transit. You'll want to use the webcast, in spite of advice from our hometown paper, the Bangkok Post, which reported 'those interested in viewing it directly were advised to watch through black tinted glasses.'"
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2003 Transit of Mercury More

2003 Transit of Mercury

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  • Already finished (Score:5, Informative)

    by Angry Toad ( 314562 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @07:33AM (#5900077)

    The transit is already over. Here [eso.org] is a direct link to the ESO site about it (with pictures). There's a Venus transit coming up next year, however, which is much rarer.

    • Re:Already finished (Score:3, Interesting)

      by n3k5 ( 606163 )
      And hopefully they'll post the story just as timely next year.

      • Re:Already finished (Score:5, Insightful)

        by CoolVibe ( 11466 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @07:57AM (#5900183) Journal
        Agreed... Astronomical events like these should be pre-programmed instead of posted from the hip. I hope too that the slashdot editors learn a lesson from this...

        It might be a novel idea to Taco and friends to post these stories _in advance_ of the actual event, not when it's already gone. *sigh*

        • Re:Already finished (Score:4, Informative)

          by geekoid ( 135745 ) <{moc.oohay} {ta} {dnaltropnidad}> on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @11:32AM (#5901941) Homepage Journal
          it might also be a novel idea if people who are interested in such phenomina would actually go to sites that specialize in these events and look at there calender.

          I use the term loosly, but /. is a news site, and by definition, news has already happened.

          • I suppose it depends on what you want.

            If you only want people with a deep love of astronomy to know about upcoming events, then you're dead on.

            If you want to try to introduce newcomers to the delights of celestrial events, then you want to have sites like Slashdot put up the articles ahead of time.

            I consider myself fairly interested in astronomical events. I've gone out in freezing cold weather for meteor showers. I've sat on a rooftop to get a good view of a lunar eclipse. (And I'll be out photographing

          • I use the term loosly, but /. is a news site, and by definition, news has already happened.

            That's one of several definitions, and it would be a big mistake if such a definition (e.g.: 'a report of recent events') was the only one slashdot posters would use to interpret their mission statement. You could also say, as slashdot is a news site, everything they report is news. Even if it's about something that hasn't happened yet.

            News is also, by definition, everything that is newsworthy.

            it might also be a

    • Re:Already finished (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @07:53AM (#5900168)
      No! The transit is not over. It is still ongoing. The media outlets of the infideals claim it is over, but it is not. Mercury is still fighting to stay in front of the sun. In fact, the Sun is losing the battle, and will soon leave the area. We will drive the infidels back and Mercury will once again regain its place in front of the Sun.

      Planetary Information Minister Mohammed al-Sahhaf

    • Re:Already finished (Score:3, Informative)

      by KjetilK ( 186133 )
      Yeah, I posted a note about this when the event started, but it is still pending.

      Anyway, I was plugging our own webcast [astronomy.no] (from four cities in Norway, two of them had great weather), but that is all too late now...

  • which reported 'those interested in viewing it directly were advised to watch through black tinted glasses.'"

    Yeah, and then they don't need black glasses no more. Or any glasses, for that matter. Or even light.

  • Sunglasses (Score:5, Informative)

    by FTL ( 112112 ) <slashdot&neil,fraser,name> on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @07:38AM (#5900098) Homepage
    During one of the more recent solar eclipses in Canada, some teacher went out and bought 30 $1 sunglasses so that her class could watch the eclipse. Half of them ended up in hospital a few hours later.

    It only takes a couple of stupid incidents like this to strike fear in parents and teachers everywhere. Now many schools close the blinds and go through what ammounts to a 'duck and cover' bomb drill whenever there's an eclipse.

    • Re:Sunglasses (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I also heard about a class, whos teach got it 'almost right'. She had the class poke holes in cardboard, but instead of projecting that onto paper, she had the stare at the sun threw the hole.
    • i just love this. people think the sun is more dangerous when there is an eclipse, when in fact its just that you're more likely to want to stare at the sun when there is an eclipse.

      why can't our teachers be smarter?
      • This is technically an eclipse, but Mercury is so much smaller than the sun (and so close to it) that it only makes for a tiny black spot on surface of the sun. The spot Mercury projects is even smaller than an average sunspot, so the reduction of energy hitting your eye is negliable.

        • Re:Sunglasses (Score:2, Funny)

          by Destoo ( 530123 )
          Can't wait 'till juppiter passes in front of us to block the sun. That'll be something!!!!

          Destoo..

          (these are not dots. It's my drool leaking on the keyboard and to the internet)

      • Re:Sunglasses (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Staring at the sun *is* more dangerous when there is an eclipse.
        Confronted with the smaller amount of illumination from a crescent sun, one's pupils will dilate wider than they would when looking at a full sun. But, given fixed pupil size, the energy per sq. mm within the image of the sun on the retina is the same whether it full or a crescent.
        So, wider pupils means greater energy per area on the retina (within the image of the sun), and so greater chance of damage to the retina in that area.
        Note t

      • Re:Sunglasses (Score:5, Informative)

        by hubie ( 108345 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @08:26AM (#5900346)
        Actually the teachers are correct. The sun is more dangerous during an eclipse because the sun is dark enough so as not to initiate our natural blink reflexes or aversion to bright lights; however, there is still significant blue to ultraviolet light being emitted from the corona. It is the exposure to this radiation that causes eye damage. A nice explanation can be found here [optometry.co.uk].

        Whether or not you are more likely to want to stare at an eclipse is irrelevant. It is the fact that you can comfortably stare at an eclipse long enough to cause retinal damage whereas you cannot easily do this otherwise with the sun.

        • Re:Sunglasses (Score:3, Interesting)

          by geekoid ( 135745 )
          but if the glass were 100% UV protected, then it should be fine.

          Interesting note, Richard Feynman watched the first nuclear blast throuh car windows, which block UV.
          The goggles they gave hime where to dark for his tastes.
          • Actually solar infrared radiation is more dangerous than ultraviolet.

            See http://www.eclipse99.com/safety.html [eclipse99.com]

          • Re:Sunglasses (Score:5, Informative)

            by hubie ( 108345 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @01:32PM (#5903397)
            It isn't just the UV that causes problems. It is the blue (and green) light as well (they don't necessarily burn tissue,they mess up the chemistry in the retinal cones).

            To quote the aforementioned link:

            Until 30 years ago, it was thought that the damage caused by the sun to eyes were the result of infrared (heat) injury to the retina alone. Then research on animals showed that ocular tissue rose in temperature by only a few degrees. We now believe that photochemical damage from visible blue light plays a major role in causing injury, especially when exposures are for more than a few seconds. If exposure is limited, some recovery of the nerve cells in the retina, is possible over a period of months.
        • Light from the corona won't damage your eyes -- you can stare directly at a *total* solar eclipse. It's when the Sun is only partly covered that there is still a danger.
      • Somewhat off-topic...

        Our (US) teachers can't be smarter because we (the people of the US) do not pay them enough.

        Most "smart" people are attracted by high-paying jobs. Everyone else are teachers because they are not as smart, or because they are philanthropists-at-heart, passionate about teaching, or because their parents pay for everything so getting paid less doesn't matter.

        Go to town meetings a vote for better education funding. Old people with no kids in school and nothing better to do are there whet

    • Re:Sunglasses (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Imabug ( 2259 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @07:57AM (#5900185) Homepage Journal
      I recall my first eclipse experience when I was in 3rd grade. All the windows were covered over, the curtains were drawn, and nobody was allowed outside. The school was sealed up tight. Observation areas were set up at some windows with a piece of welder's glass so students could take a peek at the eclipse.

      We were of course warned that we shouldn't look at the sun during the eclipse, but the overall impression that most of my fellow students were left with was that being outside during an eclipse was dangerous, like somehow the sun had changed and the light would cause people to go blind or something.

      Better to be safe than sorry I suppose, but I recall a few friends getting nervous during the next eclipse several years later.

      • Re:Sunglasses (Score:5, Informative)

        by Nerant ( 71826 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @08:29AM (#5900367)
        For those intending to use welder's glass for phototaking/viewing of such events, please get the proper grade of welder's glass, grade #14 and above is good enough.

        Reference: -1- [utoledo.edu]
        -2- [skyandtelescope.com]
      • Eclipse causing people to go blind or mad?

        Obviously this reminds me of the famous, most beautifully written short story by a chemist, Isaac Asimov, Nightfall.

        Maybe he was writing out of experience? Civilization burning in flames as masses go insane with the eclipse? Well, he was an American... :)

        When the people of Most Advanced country in the world has such idiots in power, I wonder what the humanity end in.

        If your friends were educated people, you should told them to get rid of their irrational fears.

      • Re:Sunglasses (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        ...the overall impression that most of my fellow students were left with was that being outside during an eclipse was dangerous, like somehow the sun had changed and the light would cause people to go blind or something.

        Your school should have made everyone read The Day of The Triffids
      • I remember my first eclipse. It was 1979 (? I was only 8). My dad and other amateur astronomers set up telescopes with solar filters near an old cemetery. It was awesome.
        • Me too. I was in first grade then. I remember everyone talking about the eclipse for days before it happened. I didn't understand what it was though, only that it involved the sun and you weren't supposed to look at it except with a special device (which I didn't have). Then, on the day of the event, it became very dark and the street lights came on. I thought this must be somehow connected to the "eclipse" that everyone talked about. Later, I asked someone when the eclipse was going to happen. I wa

    • Re:Sunglasses (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 )

      Should have taken the class on a tour to a site with welding equipment. I had a great view of the recent eclipse through one of those welding shields or screens or whatever they are called. I also heard that staring at the eclipse by a reflection in a bucket of water would work nicely...

    • In the UK about 3 years ago there was extensive coverage of an eclipse, with the usual warnings. As usual some idiots paid no attention at all (I saw someone using a welders mask to view it), but I managed to see it through a couple of floppy discs (they fileter exceedingly well, at least the red end of the spectrum (no idea how much IR was blasting my eyes, but no visible damage so far). Not clever, the only way to do it is to use cardboard with a hole in it.
    • which proves that teachers are horribly stupid like the rest of the planet.

      This teacher I hope was fired. the ony safe way for the kids to watch it would have been the pinhole in a box trick. Otherwise the best thing is to use the proper equipment (Like a telescope with a sun filter)

      My daughter has seen ever astronomical event we have had during her lifetime.. CORRECTLY and SAFELY. all it takes is 10 minutes of effort to do it right.
    • Just go out to any tree-lined street and look at the sidewalk. The spaces between the leaves create myriad pinhole-camera effects and the ground is dappled with dancing images of the eclipse, reversed. This doesn't work for lunar eclipses, tho....
    • From the NASA news story [nasa.gov] on this event:
      The transit can't be seen with the naked eye because Mercury is so small - only about 1/160 of the Sun's diameter. But anyone with an Internet connection can
      watch it live [nasa.gov] from the SOHO spacecraft.

  • If it's anything like my transit... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Joe the Lesser ( 533425 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @07:38AM (#5900103) Homepage Journal
    It'll have to idle in traffic waiting for it's turn to merge onto the highway.

  • Don't do it, kids! (Score:5, Informative)

    by fobbman ( 131816 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @07:43AM (#5900125) Homepage
    This [eso.org] is what your eyes will look like if you watch the event through dark tinted glasses.

  • Black tinted glasses? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by The Terrorists ( 619137 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @07:53AM (#5900167)
    No way. That's not nearly safe enough, project it onto a piece of white paper with a pinhole camera. Then you won't get the dark glasses obscuring your view, either. A little ingenuity often prevails over a little consumerism. ;)
    • A tall cardboard box works well for this. Cut a small hole in one end, and tape aluminum foil over it. Pin prick a hole in the foil.

      Cut a small opening in the side of the box, so you can see the image projected into the inside bottom of the box, when aimed at the sun.

      That was the DIY rig my father used when I was a kid way back when, to view a partial eclipse.

    • ...project it onto a piece of white paper with a pinhole camera. Then you won't get the dark glasses obscuring your view, either. A little ingenuity often prevails over a little consumerism. ;)

      For the partial eclipse last June I made a pinhole camera out of a cardboard box. I taped a piece of white paper inside for a projection screen, poked a tiny hole in a piece of 120 film backing paper (black on the film side) for the pinhole, and stuck the whole thing together with masking tape. Total

  • Not the end of world? (Score:5, Funny)

    by april10 ( 516431 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @08:05AM (#5900216) Homepage
    And no cult proclaiming the end of the world? How odd..

  • why not more often? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fredrik70 ( 161208 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @08:16AM (#5900266) Homepage
    Hopefully someone can answer this litle question of mine.
    Since Mercury orbits the sun in only 88 days, why can we see transists more often than about 13 times a century (according to space.com)?
    Same thing with Venus, since it's in a orbit inside ours it must *at least* pass earth on the 'inside track' once a year. Is it because the orbits a slightly inclined or sometihng?

    • Re:why not more often? (Score:4, Informative)

      by sprouty76 ( 523155 ) <[stephen_douglas] [at] [yahoo.com]> on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @08:20AM (#5900295) Homepage
      Yes, you answered your own question - it's because all of the planets orbits are at different inclinations, and therefore even when another planet is directly between earth and sun (or the sun is between the earth and planet) it isn't necesarily directly in between.

      It's the same way that you don't get an eclipse during every full and new moon.

    • Oh, that's easy... (Score:5, Funny)

      by jolshefsky ( 560014 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @08:25AM (#5900336) Homepage
      fredrik70 asked:
      Hopefully someone can answer this litle question of mine. Since Mercury orbits the sun in only 88 days, why can we see transists more often than about 13 times a century (according to space.com)?

      I'm no expert in these matters, but maybe the transits occur primarily at night when the sun is switched off. This would make sense because Mercury would probably catch on fire if it were to pass so close to the sun while it were hot.

    • Probably because Mercury and Venus are usually not in the same plane as Earth... i.e. if you picture 3-dimensional space as a box. Sun's in the middle. Earth is, at the moment, in the middle of one edge. Mercury passes between us, but is actually only 1/4 of the way down from the top edge. It would not "cross" the sun to our perspective. But, if Earth were sitting along a top edge, then we might get a transit.

    • Here's another reason why it's rarer than you'd first assume:
      Mercury orbit: 88 days.
      Earth orbit: 365 days.
      Mercury is 4.14772 times faster than Earth. However, that doesn't mean that it's passes Earth 4.14772 times in an Earth year.

      Instead of working out the math using these two rates, think of a 12 hour span and a truely analog clock. The minute and hour hands overlap at the following specific times:
      t=12:00 exactly (first pass)
      t=between 1:05 and 1:06 (second pass)
      t=between 2:10 and 2:11 (third pass
  • Nice images, but it would have been fun to see them while it was happening. by 9:00AM EST, it's already 1PM in England (just past the "transit at sunrise" area) and the sun has already set in India, smack dab in the middle of the "full transit visible" area. So it looks like we missed the whole thing by about five hours. I know the pictures are the same, but there's something nice about seeing the pictures when it's really happening.

    But then again, the slashdot crowd would have pummeled the webcams. I'd r
    • Yea the actual event is always cool to see. Pictures of eclipses do nothing for me. I still have never seen a total solar eclipse - just some partials through pinhole cameras.

      I have had the lucky experience to see Mercury a while back. I was on a school trip, and the astronomy teacher had everyone look at where the sun was setting over cape cod bay. As soon as the sun had dipped entierly over the horizon, one could see a tiny dot quickly following it. For that brief 2 minutes or so we were able to see

  • Don't forget the total lunar eclipse in a week! (Score:5, Informative)

    by sanermind ( 512885 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @08:22AM (#5900308)
    Don't forget about the total lunar eclipse [nasa.gov] coming in less than a week. [May 16]. Very romantic! Have fun.
    • And wouldn't you know it...I'm on the wrong side of the planet for this one.

      Anyone in East Asia (I'm in Japan) is SOL according to that link. No eclipse visible here.

      Those of you in Europe will get to see it around Moon-set. That sounds pretty cool, as long as the sunrise doesn't drown it out (and I guess it wouldn't). Anyone out there w/ a camera and a long lens (spotting scope, or telescope) care to wake up early and snap a few pictures?

      You folks on the west coast of the States will get to see it at

    • Also, partial solar eclipses often follow or predate lunar eclipses by 14 days. Chances are that, if there's a lunar eclipse coming, there could very well be a partial solar eclipse two weeks before or after...
    • ...and that one you can stare at sans sunglasses, pinhole or welder's mask.

  • Bangkok Post also says... (Score:3, Funny)

    by MongooseCN ( 139203 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @08:23AM (#5900322) Homepage
    If you ever need to enter a burning house, wrap yourself in newspaper.
  • Really, is this worth a webcast? Comets are beautiful. Meteor showers are beautiful. Solar eclipses are awe inspiring. But this? It's just a black dot travelling across the sun. I don't doubt that this has enormous scientific value for astronomers and planetary scientists with the right instruments, but the average punter could achieve the same effect using a torch.
  • I guess I just don't quite understand something. The article *seems* to state that this event hasn't happened in 100 years. That doesn't make sense to me. As Mercury revolves around the sun in I believe 88 days, this should happen 4.x times during the Earths 365 day orbit. Maybe they were implying it just hadn't happened during the daytime in Bangkok in 100 years?
    • As Mercury revolves around the sun in I believe 88 days, this should happen 4.x times during the Earths 365 day orbit

      This would only be true if mercury was orbiting in the same (or almost the same) plane as us. IANAA but I would assume this is not the case. This means that this event only happens when the Earth and Mercury are approximately at the point of intersection of the two orbital planes at the correct time.

      • Re:Rare Event? (Score:4, Informative)

        by MartyC ( 85307 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @09:31AM (#5900860) Homepage
        I would assume this is not the case. This means that this event only happens when the Earth and Mercury are approximately at the point of intersection of the two orbital planes at the correct time.

        Correct. Mercury's orbit is inclined at 7 degrees to that of the earth. This makes the chances that mercury will cross the solar disk (roughly half a degree apparent diameter) at the exact moment rrequired for a transit pretty slim...

        • I guess it isnt that slim if it happens 13 times per century. This means it happens every 7.6 years. And since Mercury orbits the sun 4 times in one of our years, that means that 1 out of every 31 Mercury orbits will trasit the sun fropm our point of view.

          1 out of 31 isnt all that low of a probability considering some other celestial events.

  • Total Lunar Eclipse: May 15-16, 2003 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by whovian ( 107062 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @09:11AM (#5900707)
    for the record, this is posted on /. before the event. See this [nasa.gov] link over at NASA.

    Summary: Atlantic Ocean, eastern half of the US, eastern third of Canada see the whole thing. People in Europe and Africa see it at moonset, while those in the rest of US and Canada see it at moonrise.

  • Bah (Score:5, Funny)

    by MiTEG ( 234467 ) * on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @09:36AM (#5900896) Homepage Journal
    Don;t listen to thesr poeple, I spent hours as a kid starring at teh sun, adn my visoin is fine! ;]

  • Venus Transit next year, June 2004 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by kindbud ( 90044 ) on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @10:18AM (#5901234) Homepage
    No living person has witnessed a Venus transit. The next one occurs June 8, 2004. If all goes well, on that day I'll be on a beach at a resort in Mauritius, with a video camera and a telescope, and I might actually succeed in capturing a DV stream. The weather prospects in Mauritius are not the best, but considering that the best prospects for clear skies are in Iran and Turkey, I'll take my chances in Mauritius.
  • Hours before, and all during the transit all of the live sites, especially NASA's were incredibly slow, I though they must have been slashdotted, but I even checked to see if it was advertized onk /. but I guess not until this morning. But the videos are pretty sweet, go watch them!

  • Open source software to simulate and make images (Score:3, Informative)

    by alanh ( 29068 ) * on Wednesday May 07, 2003 @12:50PM (#5902935) Homepage
    For those of you who are interested, Celestia [shatters.net] is an Open Source application that can simulate the movements of the planets in 3d and generate some really cool pictures. It's available for Linux, Win32, and MacOSX.

    One particularly good gallery is the Celestial Phenomina [shatters.net] one by "Calculus." An example of a cool image is Saturn transit of the Sun as seen from Uranus in 2669 [shatters.net].

  • I think using binoculars to project an image onto a piece of paper gives a better picture than a pinhole camera, but it is the same idea.

    Projected images are so much safer than looking through anything, plus more than one person can look at a projected image at the same time.
  • There's a little black spot on the sun today.... :)

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