NASA is hoping to engage the public early Monday to view the transit of Mercury across the Sun.

Agency scientists will also be on hand to greet spectators who turn out at the Greenbelt, Maryland facility for the rare celestial occurrence. Mercury only passes between the Earth and the Sun about 13 times per century. The last time such a trek took place was roughly a decade ago in 2006.

Telescope of High-Powered Binoculars Needed for Live Viewing

Live viewing will require either a telescope or high-powered binoculars equipped with solar filters made of specially-coated glass or Mylar. In lieu of that, NASA officials are offering various other options for public viewing, including viewing images on NASA.gov, other social media type coverage and the airing of a one-hour NASA Television special.

Planet Will Emerge as dot Crossing Clinton Edge of Sun

Scientists report Mercury will appear as a small black dot crossing the edge of the sun at approximately 7:12 a.m. At around 10:47 a.m., the planet is expected to take a voyage across the face of the sun, exiting the golden disk at approximately 2:42 p.m.

The entire nearly eight hour sequence will be visible to those across the Eastern part of the country, while those in the West can observe in progress sometime after sunrise.

Images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will be posted at: https://www.nasa.gov/transit

  • NASA also will stream a live program on NASA TVand theagency's Facebook pagefrom 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. The airing will be accompanied by a round-table discussion featuring a panel of:
  • Jim Green, planetary science director at NASA Headquarters in Washington
  • Lika Guhathakurta, heliophysics program scientist at NASA Headquarters
  • Nicky Fox, project scientist for the Solar Probe Plus mission at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland
  • Doug Hudgins, Exoplanet Exploration Program scientist at NASA Headquarters.

Viewers can ask questions via Facebook and Twitter using #AskNASA.

Related