Watch live: Mercury transit as planet goes across the Sun

Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun in our solar system, on Monday started its transit between the Earth and the Sun.

The transit takes place when Mercury passes directly between the sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During transit, Mercury appears as a tiny black dot moving across the disk of the sun. When Mercury transits the sun, you can see it as a tiny black dot silhouetted against the sun’s disk.

After the transit, the next will be in November 2032. A typical transit lasts several hours.

Since Mercury is only 1/194 of the sun’s apparent diameter, a telescope with a magnification of 50x or more is recommended to watch this celestial event. The telescope must be suitably equipped with adequate filtration to ensure safe solar viewing.