page_title: Transit of Mercury
hierarchical_section_title: Transit of Mercury
caption_attribution_description: English: The Transit of Mercury which occurred on May 9th, 2016, as viewed at 9:24:01AM CDT (14:24:01 UTC) from East Grand Forks, MN. Mercury is visible as a black dot below and to the left of center, and sunspot AR2542 is prominently visible above center (as well as AR2543 below it and AR2544 on the upper left edge of the Sun). The equipment used for the photograph were a Nikon D5500 DSLR (shutter speed 1/30th of a second, ISO 100), a Celestron C6-R Refractor, a Baader Planetarium ASTF-140 solar filter, and a Lumicon 2" #58 dark green filter.
context_page_description: A transit of Mercury across the Sun takes place when the planet Mercury passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against the solar disk. During a transit, Mercury appears as a tiny black dot moving across the disk of the Sun.
  Transits of Mercury with respect to Earth are much more frequent than transits of Venus, with about 13 or 14 per century, in part because Mercury is closer to the Sun and orbits it more rapidly.
  Transits of Mercury occur in May or November. The last four transits occurred on May 7, 2003; November 8, 2006; May 9, 2016; and November 11, 2019. The next will occur on November 13, 2032. A typical transit lasts several hours.
  On June 3, 2014, the Mars rover Curiosity observed the planet Mercury transiting the Sun, marking the first time a planetary transit has been observed from a celestial body besides Earth.
  More generally, transits can also occur for Venus and were investigated in the context of searching for the hypothetical inner planet Vulcan.
context_section_description: A transit of Mercury across the Sun takes place when the planet Mercury passes directly (transits) between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Mercury appears as a tiny black dot moving across the disk of the Sun.
  Transits of Mercury with respect to Earth are much more frequent than transits of Venus, with about 13 or 14 per century, in part because Mercury is closer to the Sun and orbits it more rapidly.
  Transits of Mercury occur in May or November. The last four transits occurred on May 7, 2003; November 8, 2006; May 9, 2016; and November 11, 2019. The next will occur on November 13, 2032. A typical transit lasts several hours.
  On June 3, 2014, the Mars rover Curiosity observed the planet Mercury transiting the Sun, marking the first time a planetary transit has been observed from a celestial body besides Earth.
  More generally, transits can also occur for Venus and were investigated in the context of searching for the hypothetical inner planet Vulcan.
caption: Transit of Mercury on May 9, 2016
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