|
I See? |
Mini-mini-mini EclipseA transit is a very small eclipse. It's never total because the disk of Mercury (or Venus) is too small to cover the face of the sun. The disk of Mercury is only 1/200th the diameter of the sun as seen from earth. Mercury is so small that unless you know about a transit in advance, you might miss it altogether. In the 1999 transit, Mercury barely nicks the edge of the sun. For some people in the Southern Hemisphere, it only grazed the edge. We northerners, saw the dark disk of Mercury slowly enter the sun's disk, taking about 11-1/2 minutes to do so. It slowly crept across the northern edge of the sun, taking about 34 minutes and then took another 11-1/2 minutes exiting.
The above graphic shows the mid-transit position and time for San Francisco. Click the graphic for a QuickTime animation (328k) showing the complete transit. It was very similar for all U.S. locations, but the times shown varied slightly. For a table of approximate contact timings for many other locations, you can go to Fred Espanek's transit pages . Produced with Starry Night by Sienna Software.
|
|