Mercury transit of the Sun: how to see it and what to expect

(WJBK) - On Monday (May 9), you will have an opportunity to witness one of the rarest astronomical events: a transit of Mercury across the face of the sun.

Because Mercury and Venus are closer to the sun than Earth is, the two planets occasionally pass between Earth and the sun, performing something called a solar transit. This happens less than twice a century with Venus, and 13 or 14 times a century with Mercury.

On May 9, skywatchers on most of the Earth will be able to see such a transit of Mercury. Because this transit lasts more than 7 hours, the Earth will turn enough that parts of the transit will be visible nearly everywhere on Earth except for Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines and a small area of eastern Asia. Observers in eastern North America will be able to see the whole transit, while the transit will already have begun as the sun rises in the western half of the continent.

More from Space.com:

The Mercury transit begins just after 7 a.m. ET and ends just before 3 p.m. ET. On the West Coast, it begins at sunrise and ends around 11:30 PT (2:30 a.m. ET). The exact times at any given location will vary a bit, but a planetarium software program like Starry Night or SkySafari will give the exact times for your location.

The other important thing a planetarium program will tell you is exactly where on the sun's limb to look for the first appearance of Mercury. Unless you know where to look, you will miss the beginning of the event, which astronomers call "first contact." Second contact occurs when Mercury has completely made it onto the sun's disk.

At this point, you may see something called the "black drop effect." An optical illusion causes the disk of Mercury to appear to be connected to the dark sky beyond the sun by a tiny thread of blackness. The black drop may also be visible at third contact, when Mercury begins to leave the sun's disk some 7.5  hours later. Fourth contact is when Mercury is completely off the sun.

Now for the bad news: You will need a good telescope equipped with a proper solar filter to see Mercury silhouetted against the sun. That is because Mercury is very small compared to the sun — only 1/160 the diameter of the star. (Warning: NEVER look directly at the sun without proper protection. Serious and permanent eye damage can result.)