Transit of Mercury next week

When Mercury swung in front of the sun on November 8, 2006, it appeared as a small black dot (lower right of center), not nearly as conspicuous as the big sunspot at the left edge of the solar disk. Photo by Brocken Inaglory.
(from http://earthsky.org/?p=234431)

Next week on Monday May 9th will be a rare transit of Mercury across the face of the sun. This means our innermost planet will be passing directly between the Earth and the Sun. The last time this occurred was 2006, but was not visible from Israel. It will not happen again till 2019. 

(For pictures of the 2006 transit captured in Efrat see here.)

In order to view the transit you will need special equipment. There will be a public viewing in Bet Shemeh by the Dubeh HaGedolah group. See this link for info and to sign up.

If you can't make it to Bet Shemesh you can see a great simulation at http://www.shadowandsubstance.com/ There will also be a live streaming event at http://www.ccssc.org/webcast.html starting at 2:00pm Israel time.

-AstroTom

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