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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- ISS and Mercury Too
NASA ^ | Friday, May 13, 2016 | (see photo credit)

Posted on 05/14/2016 1:03:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Explanation: Transits of Mercury are relatively rare. Monday's leisurely 7.5 hour long event was only the 2nd of 14 Mercury transits in the 21st century. If you're willing to travel, transits of the International Space Station can be more frequent though, and much quicker. This sharp video frame composite was taken from a well-chosen location in Philadelphia, USA. It follows the space station, moving from upper right to lower left, as it crossed the Sun's disk in 0.6 seconds. Mercury too is included as the small, round, almost stationary silhouette just below center. In apparent size, the International Space Station looms larger from low Earth orbit, about 450 kilometers from Philadelphia. Mercury was about 84 million kilometers away. (Editor's note: The stunning video includes another double transit, Mercury and a Pilatus PC12 aircraft. Even quicker than the ISS to cross the Sun, the aircraft was about 1 kilometer away.)

Friday, May 13, 2016

(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; astronomy; iss; mercury; mercuryintransit; pilatuspc12; science
[Credit and Copyright: Thierry Legault]

1 posted on 05/14/2016 1:03:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; disndat; KoRn; Grammy; steelyourfaith; Mmogamer; dayglored; ...
The Big One

2 posted on 05/14/2016 1:06:10 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Another good one. This one will be my desktop wallpaper.

Man, the space station is bigger than mercury. /s


3 posted on 05/14/2016 2:58:26 PM PDT by Slambat (Self-censoring in support of The Great Trump)
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To: SunkenCiv

PhotoShop will take that right out and fix that Sun picture. ;-)


4 posted on 05/14/2016 3:00:10 PM PDT by r_barton (GO TRUMP!!!)
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To: SunkenCiv

I just now came across this. I missed it and glad to see this now. Thank you for this post SunkenCiv.


5 posted on 07/13/2016 12:20:19 AM PDT by Mr Apple
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