Evansville Museum Hosting Transit of Mercury Viewing Early Monday at Reitz Hill
A somewhat rare space event is going to happen early Monday, and the Evansville Museum is giving you the chance to watch it as it happens.
The "Transit of Mercury" is when the planet Mercury crosses in front of the sun, much like an eclipse. The difference being Mercury is so small, it won't affect daylight here on planet Earth like the eclipse did last summer. Instead, the planet will look like a freckle on the face of the sun as illustrated in the photo above, and the video below.
The Museum's viewing party will take place on the east side of Drier Boulevard along the top of the Reitz Bowl beginning at 6:30 a.m. Museum representatives will provide special telescopes that will allow you to view Mercury's passing, and they strongly encourage you not try to watch it without these telescopes, since, you know, staring directly into the sun is bad for your eyes. It's expected to take nearly five hours for the planet to make its way across, so if you don't get there right at 6:30, you won't miss anything.
In the event of cloudy skies or nasty weather, the event will be cancelled. As of right now, the National Weather Service is calling for cloudy skies through most of the day before a chance of rain and snow creeps in later in the evening.
[Source: Evansville Museum on Facebook]