[OT] rare event - Mercury transit

Greetings, everyone,

For those of you online in Europe, Asia, and Africa, there is a transit of
Mercury across the face of the Sun taking place
*right* *now* (I don't know of y'all in Australia/Oceana
can see it or not)

As Mercury's apparent size is only about 1/160 of the sun's
diameter, you can't see it with the nekkid eye. Direct telescope viewing is
not recommended, since special precautions must be taken to avoid permanent
eye damage.

Although the entire transit lasts over five hours, us here viewers in North
America will only see the last 20 to 30 minutes of it. The event will be
finished by the time the sun rises west of a line from the Great Lakes to the
Carolinas, but the complete transit is safely viewable on the SOHO Web site
at:

http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2003_05_07/

A number of alternate online sources providing live images of the transit can
be found at

http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/article_921_1.asp

Good luck

Mk