Tomorrow morning is the transit of Mercury, which is where the planet Mercury is visible directly in front of the sun. This won’t happen again until 2032. If you happen to be in Silicon Valley and would like to see the transit with your own eyes, please join us tomorrow morning (weather permitting—assuming that the sun is out).
What: Viewing the transit of Mercury
When: 8:30 – 10 am Monday, November 11, 2019
Where: Evil Mad Scientist, 1285 Forgewood Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089
We’ll be setting up solar binoculars and a telescope with a solar filter so that we can safely watch Monday morning. It will take Mercury about 5 and a half hours to cross in front of the sun, and we’ll be watching the last hour and half. We’ll start viewing at 8:30 am until the end of the transit at about 10 am.
Pray for no fog.
My experience is that it usually burns off by 8 or 8:30am. (I lived in Sunnyvale for a year, and worked in Palo Alto. It was a pleasure watching the fog over the mountains.) But good luck watching stars and planets at night – it comes in about 9pm!
The last couple of days it has burned off by 10:30 or so, but it isn’t forecast for tonight, so we will hope for the best!