The Sedalia weekly bazoo., 1878-05-14
MERCURY.
The Transit To-Day-A Full De.
scription Of the Event

This morning, . frv minutes before
O'Clock, began the transit of the planet Me'
curry across the sun, and in order that ou
e citizens may have full description Of tn
e phenomenon. the BAzoO ISSUES an I,ou
' earlier than usual. The naked eye will n"
=" br able io detect il. bat With the aid of or
J." binary field or oler. glasses. <had-d viii
" smoked glass. t',e presence of the planet o,
the disk of the run can be readily s.rn
appearing as = small black sP't.
The whole transit, slth"ash remark ably
long. occupying more than seven hours ani
hall, can mot i'e seen with the aid of TIA.
ordinary smoked glass. H"xev-r, u tels-
-c"Ie of moderate power. "r a fi-h gla--.
which has power over live, may b- u-.si ro
witness the :r~n-it, but a piece "f col"rrsi "r
smoked glas. mus, be inierl,o-ed Ia cut "a
the heat rays. Although Mercury, when
he Can i'e seen with the naked eve. is one OF
the most brilliant objects in the sky, and
brighter than any fixed star except Sirin-.
he is bat a minute object when projected on
the dice Of the sun.
Tran-it- are only possible TO Us BY Venu.
aud Mercury, ~ am"ng planets discovered
these are tine only ones with their orbits in-
side that Of the earth. The iran>irs of
Venus are very rare. That "f 1874 will hr |
succeeded by another in 1882. and this will |
lie the last f"r more than hundred years. !
rh'~e of Mercury are much more frequent,
3 wears.
Mercury travels in a very eccentric orbit,
his mean distance from The sun bring about
81, 1872 900 mil-s-his greaie-t distance i.
Il 669. 600 miles, and his least 2Sl;5,OOO.
When nearest the earth we are w,uhin
i5.0OO,OO0 miles of Mercury. and he y.,e- as
lar away from us ~ i35.5O1.OV9 miles.
From his nearnrss Ia the sun Mercury is
rarely visible To the n.ked eye-som-iimeS
immesii. .iely after sunset aud again shortly
before sunrise-the most favorable time f,r
observation being when he j. al his grraie<i
which then places him at about i
s. 900 QUO miles from us
The size Of Mercury is about 5000 miles I
diameter. Has mas. Is denSer than that OF !
the Earth, being c"mpAr-d with il a. about
lO Ia 9. lie travels round the sun in a
little less than three of our months, and Li-
lay is about the same a. ours. :.
ITS IMPORTANCE. "a
A transit Of Mcrrnry is mot so important :
's that of Venus, hecau-e his nearnrs< To !"
he Sun prevents his Lsving a measurable "
elaiive parSilax. The distance of V-na.
.om the sun is such that when in transit, e'
cen at the same n,"meni from dif!.ren: "'
'oints Of the Earlhs surface. she occupies 70
wo spots. visibly separated from eaci, y
iher. thus allowing the angle Ia be mea.ur- "'
d, by which the Suns dist ance from the !"
Earth can be calculated. But Mercury v
~ing SD close this Is impossible. Bur d.. "'
ransiis are vala liable IA illustrating the X
anne phenomena which occur in tran-i,s of "'
black drop. am al black iiya-
rent. which at the moment of contact seem. "'
: connect the disk Of the planet with the "'
ark space outside the solar disk. This is ye
-ansit Of Mercury is very manifest. Other Il
'd,cat'ons observable. clearly point to th.. n'
I kistence Of an atmosphere Of CONSIDERABLE. ~
ppth and density. w
The diagram below shows the prints Of -
'gre-s and egres<, and is represented a. IL ."
en by the naked eye. Seen through a VI
Iescope. which rever.es the p.sitiun of "a
a object, of course il would present diff mi IN
rent view from thus. but. a. mos, observ. !"
= look at il through ordinary glasses, We We
We the ILLUSTRATION 10 suii them, ~ an ~. !"
onomer who has a telescope needs nu IN ch
rmntion on the subject. We are very fsv. TIL
ably situated for view Of the entire en-
ansii, should the dav be clear. AZ il occu. MI
es Il hours in passing acr'ss the sun.