The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum will offer a special half-hour presentation on the planet Mercury as it makes its transit across the Sun at 11am on Monday, November 11, Veterans Day, in the Charles and Helen Reichert Planetarium.

General admission (with no additional fee) will admit visitors to this program. 

Amateur astronomer and space enthusiast Rob Unger, one of the Planetarium’s command-console operators, will give a talk followed by safe viewing of the Mercury event – weather permitting – with solar telescopes in the Vanderbilt Observatory. Dave Bush, director of the Reichert Planetarium, said, “Planetarium staff will set up special solar-filtered telescopes so that all visitors can safely live view the transit of Mercury across the Sun, starting at 11:30am right after the show, and continuing until 1pm.

NOTE: As a salute and a thank-you, the Vanderbilt will give free admission to the Museum and Planetarium that day to all veterans and active-duty military personnel, and their families. This offer is good for Saturday through Monday, November 9-11.