Despite the best wishes of local telescope owners and other hopefuls who wanted a peek, Monday’s rare transit of Mercury wasn’t visible in the Memphis area Monday morning.
It would have looked like a tiny perfectly round dot moving across the face of the Sun, but the cloud cover obscured it and apparently stretched all the way back to Dallas, according to Bill Wilson of the Memphis Astronomical Society.
In anticipation, MAS volunteers had set up telescopes at Shelby Farms Park and at the Memphis Pink Palace for viewers. Transits of Mercury happen only 13 or 14 times per century, always in May or November, but interfering weather can’t be helped.
“It’s always fun to watch this happen,” Wilson said, but he was philosophical about setting up his Questar telescope to see nothing but clouds.
He observes the Sun daily and reports on sunspots, and he’s seen a few transits in his lifetime. Wilson has already seen two previous transits of Mercury and two transits of Venus.
He’s looking forward to next year’s big heavenly event, when a total eclipse of the sun will be visible in Nashville on Aug 21, 2017.
The last Mercury transit visible from the United States was in November 2006. The next will be on Nov. 11, 2019. That will be the last one visible from the United States until May 7, 2049.
For more information about Mercury transits, go to Sky & Telescope’s website at bit.ly/Mercury-transit-2016. For more information about the Memphis Astronomical Society, go to memphisastro.org.
Written by Carolyn Bahm, Express editor. Contact her at (901) 433-9138 or via email to bartlett.editor@journalinc.com.
Thanks for trying!
Kris Grauel
Memphis