[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