Transit of mercury

Mercury Passed in front of the sun today in what is called a transit of mercury. In an interuption from a school project, my Astronomy teacher ripped me from my computer to observe this astronomical phenomenon. A telescope equipped with a solar filter was aimed at the sun so as not to damage those peoples eyes who decide to observe the sun. In addition to the telescope, a sun spotter was also available for use. The sun spotter makes an image of the sun on a piece of paper so that you can see the dark spots whithout burning a hole in your retina. We watched mercury travel quite a bit of distance across the sun over the course of aproximately a half hour. One fairly large sunspot was also visible during the transit.