Search for a transit of Mercury or Venus — astro_search

Finds the first transit of Mercury or Venus after a specified date. A transit occurs when an inferior planet passes between the Sun and Earth, with the planet's silhouette visible against the Sun.

Usage

astro_search_transit(body, start_time)

Arguments

body: Integer code for the planet. Use 1 for Mercury or 2 for Venus.
start_time: A POSIXct datetime for starting the search.

Value

A list with elements:

start: Start time of the transit (POSIXct).
peak: Time of closest approach (POSIXct).
finish: End time of the transit (POSIXct).
separation: Angular separation at peak in arcminutes.

Examples

start <- as.POSIXct("2025-01-01", tz = "UTC")
astro_search_transit(astro_body["MERCURY"], start)
#> $start
#> [1] "2032-11-13 06:41:48 UTC"
#> 
#> $peak
#> [1] "2032-11-13 08:54:14 UTC"
#> 
#> $finish
#> [1] "2032-11-13 11:06:53 UTC"
#> 
#> $separation
#> [1] 9.594123
#>