Oh Mercury! | Friday, October 27, 2006 |
It's been a bit quiet on the blog front recently. I've tried to be diligent about adding stuff, but newsworthy items don't crop up every day, and I suppose as we reside here longer, fewer things seem strange.
Anyway this coming week we have houseguests from both NZ and the UK and finally we'll get to visit the Blue Mountains. It so happens however that on the November 9th whilst we're in the mountains the Transit of Mercury occurs.
Had we been in Sydney, we'd have made the effort to get to the observatory and watch as the closest and one of the smallest planets in the solar system passes in front of the sun.
A couple of years back we got up early and made the effort to see Venus perform the same trick on a glorious early summer morning in Greenwich (where we watched it, not where it happened you understand).
Fortunately I recalled that there's an observatory in the mountains (for obvious reasons I suppose) and happily they'll be open from 0630 so we can witness the transit. Hopefully the weather will be on our side - if not, that's the last opportunity to see this from Australia for about another 30 years.
Anyway this coming week we have houseguests from both NZ and the UK and finally we'll get to visit the Blue Mountains. It so happens however that on the November 9th whilst we're in the mountains the Transit of Mercury occurs.
Had we been in Sydney, we'd have made the effort to get to the observatory and watch as the closest and one of the smallest planets in the solar system passes in front of the sun.
A couple of years back we got up early and made the effort to see Venus perform the same trick on a glorious early summer morning in Greenwich (where we watched it, not where it happened you understand).
Fortunately I recalled that there's an observatory in the mountains (for obvious reasons I suppose) and happily they'll be open from 0630 so we can witness the transit. Hopefully the weather will be on our side - if not, that's the last opportunity to see this from Australia for about another 30 years.
