Mercury Crosses Directly in Front of the Sun 2006

Mercury crossed directly in front of the Sun ("transit the Sun") on Wednesday, November 8, 2006. Such direct alignments of the inner planets with the Sun are rare! The next Mercury transit of the Sun will not be until the year 2016. Venus transited the Sun in 2004 and it will transit again in 2012, but the next Venus transit after that will not be until 2117!

Select the pictures below to bring up larger pictures of the transit as seen with the planetarium's Solarscope. The Solarscope uses a small telescope and a small convex mirror to reflect the projected image onto a white cardboard surface that surrounds the small telescope.

The figure below illustrates the important events of the transit from first contact (at time "I") to midpoint (at time "Greatest") to last contact (at time "IV"). The diagram is adapted from NASA's Eclipse Man, Fred Espenak (link will appear in a new window). Note that 13:41 PST is 1:41 PM in Bakersfield and 16:10 PST is 4:10 PM in Bakersfield.

For more about this Mercury transit, see (all links will appear in a new window):

1. Fred Espenak's Mercury Transit 2006 webpage.
2. NASA's Headline News article about the Mercury Transit 2006 . This includes a link to the solar observatory spacecraft called "SOHO" that will show you the view of the transit from space.
3. NASA "Digital Learning Network" webcast especially for K12 teachers with lesson plans.
4. Exploratorium's live webcast of the transit.
5. Pinhole projection to watch the transit safely from Sky and Telescope.
6. Projection from a telescope to watch the transit safely from Sky and Telescope.
7. More information about Mercury and the rest of the planets from Astronomy Notes.

Back to Planetarium homepage -- -- go to Astronomy Notes homepage

last updated: November 23, 2006

Webpage contact: Nick Strobel