Mon May 9, 2016 TRANSIT OF MERCURY

We’ve got pretty much an all-day event going on here at the Hallstrom Planetarium on the main Fort Pierce campus of Indian River State College. Starting at 7 o’clock this morning, we’ll have telescopes and solar filters set out for viewing the transit of Mercury. For about seven hours, the planet Mercury will be directly between us and the sun, and with a properly filtered telescope, you can see it as a small, black round dot against it. The transit will end a little before 3 o’clock in the afternoon. At no time will it be safe to look at the sun without protective filters, so please don’t try this on your own. Head for the Planetarium on Virginia Avenue and 30th Street in Fort Pierce, and we’ll be conducting safe views of the transit. College students in the Hallstrom Astronomical Society and members of the Treasure Coast Astronomical Society will be on hand to provide these guided observations. This event is free and open to the community.