Today you have a rare opportunity today to see a planet in motion.
There's a window of time beginning this morning until about 2:40pm this afternoon when you can get a clear view of Mercury. It only happens about 13 times a century, and it's called the “Mercury transit.” Historically, transits like this were used as a way for scientists to work out the scale of the solar system.
Tom English is the head of the Cline Observatory at Guilford Technical Community College. He says, “For a few hours, as Mercury works its way through its orbit, it appears as a small black dot against the face of the bright sun.”
The best and safest way to watch is through a solar-filtered telescope. The Cline Observatory will be open until 4:30pm for solar viewing.
The next Mercury transit will be in 2019.