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Here's the latest article from the Astronomy site at BellaOnline.com.

Transit of Mercury
No one alive had seen Venus transit when the 2004 one occurred. And if you missed that and the 2012 transit, there isn't another until 2117. However Mercury also transits the Sun – and these transits happen more often. But what's a transit and what do we learn from it?

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art302771.asp

The next transit of Mercury is on May 9. Here is Brian Ventrudo's guide to the transit: http://cosmicpursuits.com/931/guide-transit-of-mercury-may-9-2016/. Venus is larger than Mercury and closer to us, so you may have had a look at a transit of Venus using eclipse glasses. But you will need access to a telescope in order to see the upcoming Mercury transit.

*Anniversaries*

April 19, 1971: The Soviet Union launched Salyut 1, which was the first ever space station.

April 20, 1967: Surveyor 3 landed on the Moon. NASA's Surveyor program sent robotic probes to the Moon to learn more about what would be needed for manned landings. Surveyor 3's camera was retrieved two years later and brought back to Earth by Apollo 12 astronauts.

This is just one of the stories in space expert Ian Ridpath's guest article “In the Footsteps of the Apollo Astronauts” http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art29536.asp

April 25, 1990: The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed.

Please visit http://astronomy.bellaonline.com/Site.asp for even more great content about Astronomy.

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I wish you clear skies.

Mona Evans, Astronomy Editor
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