Today, Monday May 9 the planet Mercury will go directly in front of the sun. This is a rare ‘transit’ that happens only 13 times a century.

Most of North America and Europe should be able see the event thorough binoculars or a telescope. If you miss it this time it won't be around again until 2019.

WARNIG: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SOLAR FILTER BEFORE WATCHING THE TRANSIT, DO NOT TRY LOOKING DIRECTLY AT THE SUN.

Mercury will begin its transit at 7:12 am EST on May 9 and take about 7.5 hours to fully cross the face of the sun. If you don’t have a solar filter wait until you can view it on the internet at space.com, NASA.gov or earthsky.org.

 

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