2032 November 13 Transit of Mercury

As seen from Earth, only transits of the inner planets Mercury and Venus are possible. Planetary transits are far more rare than eclipses of the Sun by the Moon. On average, there are 13 transits of Mercury each century. Nowadays, all transits of Mercury fall within several days of May 8 and November 10. During November transits, Mercury is near perihelion and exhibits a disk only 10 arc-seconds in diameter. By comparison, the planet is near aphelion during May transits and appears 12 arc-seconds across. However be aware that the planet Mercury is too small to be seen with the naked eye in front of the Sun. It’s therefore essential to magnify the image using a telescope or any appropriate device to detect the black ball pinned in the foreground of the photosphere of our star.

On the 2032 Transit of Mercury visibility map you can see that all the transit is visible from the Middle East where the weather prospects are the best in November. This is why I will likely observe from either Oman or Egypt. In less than five hours the planet Mercury will cross the solar disk from east to west. It will be the first transit of Mercury since the one in 2019 and the transit will be entirely visible from Africa, partially from South America, Asia, Australia and Europe. The following Mercury transit will only occur in 2039, so don’t miss the 2032 one!

Find out if you will be able to see Mercury during the next November transit by using this Mercury transit calculator.