Transit of Mercury

http://livestream.com/SkyandTelescope/Mercury ^

[henkster]

Only one sunspot, and fairly small.

[GraceG]

Mercury is in Retrograde, which means I should avoid love.

[NativeSon]

If you have some simple tools, you can whip up something to view the transit without boiling your eyeballs (funny thing about no pain sensors inside the eye, you'd cook your eye without knowing it).

For the Transit of Venus I used a 10" refractor, cut out a port in the bottom of a bucket and affixed the shield lens from a welding mask. Placed the bucket over the end of the telescope and was treated to a once in a lifetime show.

Something similar can be done with a pair binoculars and two pairs of polarized sunglasses. stacking polarized lenses allows you to control the "amount" of light by rotating one of the lenses. This makes a very nice "throttle" so you don't blind yourself...

[Zeppo]

Right now there's an interview with an "exoplanet" (planets that orbit different sun) expert that's really interesting.

http://live.slooh.com/stadium/live/transit-of-mercury-2016#

Along with live telescope views of Mercury.

Later on there will be live views from a solar telescope in Arizona that will be mind-boggling (Prescott Observatory).

[combat_boots]

Yes, it is.

But it’s more like a dot after about 20 minutes.