Schedule

In order to magnigy the probability of finding simulataneously taken images from distant places we propose to photograph Sun and Mercury during the transit all halfs of an hour, i.e. exactly at 11:30, 12:00, ..., 18:00, 18:30 UT. (If you are not certain about the difference between your local time and Universal time look at heavens above.) Special attention should be focussed onto the times 12:00, 14:00, 16:00 and 18:00 UT.
The different importance of the appointed times may be visualized in the following manner:

Schedule for Photographing
11:30	11:45	12:00	12:15	12:30	12:45	13:00	13:15
13:30	13:45	14:00	14:15	14:30	14:45	15:00	15:15
15:30	15:45	16:00	16:15	16:30	16:45	17:00	17:15
17:30	17:45	18:00	18:15	18:30

If it is for any reason not possible to photograph at these times Mercury should be photographed at arbitrary times as often as possible. Those images will allow to interpolate after the transit (see below).

In order to be able to measure Mercury's position on the solar disc the exact orientation of the pictures must be known. Non professional observers can solve this problem by exposuring their pictures twice. Tips for that procedure are given on this project's page exercises and on the photographing page of the Venus 2012 project.

For the additional determination of the Sun's angular radius see the project measuring the angular radius of the Sun.

Sample pictures may be uploaded via our data exchange page.

The position of Mercury on these pictures may be measured with the help of the little (Windows-) program evaltransitpicts.
In the case that clouds have made photographing impossible at the fixed moments, the positions may later be determined by interpolation between the positions on pictures taken at earlier and later moments (see below).

The measured positions of Mercury at the above proposed points of time may also be uploaded via our data exchange page.

The complete position data made by a single participant can be filled into the worksheet tableofMercurypositions.xls which calculates and displays the parameters of the best linear fit to these positions. The line fit will allow to interpolate to the above mentioned points of time. Additionally, the line fit will allow to derive the contact times by extrapolating the observational data. This is, for instance, be done by the (Windows-) program evaltransitpicts.

The filled worksheet may be uploaded via our data exchange page, too.

For the graphical visualisation of the own measurements we offer the above mentioned (Windows-) program comptransitofmercurypos which additionally computes theoretical contact times by extrapolating of the line fit.

Example visualisation of theoretical 2016 results

For the evaluation by combinating the results of two distant sites, we offer to possibilities:
1. the comparison of two simultaneous position measurements with a the little worksheet comp2Mercurypositions.xls executing the procedure described in our example (the little (Windows-) program calcparallax does the same) and
2. the combination of the line fits of two distant sites, again with the program comptransitofmercurypos.zip.
  
  Example comparison of theoretical 2012 results
If you don't find any data from distant sites suitable for being combinated with your own measurements it will temporarily be possible to compare them with calculated geocentric positions. (The calculation of geocentric data is possible without knowing the absolute size of the solar system!)

Example comparison between topocentric and geocentric results

The results will be published on the result page of this project.
(The result page of our Transit of Venus 2012 Project may give an impression of the intended layout.)

Editor:

Udo Backhaus

last update: 29.04.2016

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Transit of Mercury, May 9th, 2016

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