Next Venus Transits (With Data About Mercury Transits)

->Venus 2012 transit -which is the second in this century series- is to

click to Venus June 2012 transit visibility

occur on June, 6th. It will be visible in its entirety in the Pacific zone (Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Papua-New Guinea, Australia (except western part of the country), New Zealand (except some east coast fringes), Alaska). Europe except Portugal and western Spain, eastern Africa, Middle East, India, Russia will see the egress phases as the show will already have begun at sunrise. North America, Central America, northwesternmost part of South America will see the ingress phases

click to Venus transits 2012, 2117-2125; dotted line is the ecliptic. Inclinations are unsignificant. Venus positions North or South of the ecliptic are indicated

as sunset will interrupt the event. Most of South America, West Africa, southwestern Africa are definitely out of the show. 2012 transit will have Venus transit farther from Sun's limb than 2004' (553" instead of 627). Would you have missed this year transit and not be able to see 2012's one, you would have to wait until 2117-2125 to see a Venus transit! Although their visibility is not available already, their minimum separation UT times allow to guess where entire visibility will be located. Venus transit occurring on December, 11th 2117 should be centered on Far East (min. sep. at 01:28 UT) as December, 8th 2125 should on Atlantic Ocean (min. sep. at 02:48). Both transit will be a little nearer to Sun limb than what we saw in 2004 (724" in 2117, 733" in 2125)

->All Mercury transits occur either in May (about May, 8th) or in November (about November, 10th) when the planet is crossing Earth's orbit planes and is at its inferior conjunction at the same time. May transits are twice less numerous than those of November and occur each 13 or 33 years. November transits occurs each 7, 13 or 33 years. During November transits, Mercury is at its perihelion (nearest Sun, farthest Earth); during May transits, Mercury is at its aphelion (farthest Sun, nearest Earth). see Mercury transits data below, with data about 2003 transit for comparison

Date		Time UT		Min. Sep.	App. Diam.
2003 May 07	07:52		708"		12"
2006 Nov 08	21:41		423"		10"
2016 May 09	14:57		319"		12"
2019 Nov 11	15:20		 76"		10"
2032 Nov 13	08:54		572"		10"
2039 Nov 07	08:46		822"		10"
2049 May 07	14:24		512"		12"