Natural History Wanderings

On May 9, 2016 Mercury will move across the sun’s faced or the first time in ten years. Something that is only seen from Earth just 13 to 14 times a century.

National Geographic reports

The black silhouette of the planet will take about seven and a half hours to make its trek across the solar disk, an event known as a transit. The sky show will last from 7:12 a.m. ET until 2:42 p.m. ET.

Weather permitting, the best seats will be on the East Coast of North America as well as the bulk of South America and Western Europe, where the entire transit will happen during daylight hours. For those on the West Coast of the Americas, the transit will already be under way at sunrise, and for viewers in most of Africa, Eastern Europe, and the bulk of Asia, the transit will still be in progress at sunset.

Read more at Mercury Is About to Sail Across the Sun—Here’s How to Watch