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Mercury makes rare appearanceMercury makes rare appearance

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The planet Mercury will pass between Earth and the sun today in a rare astronomic event that occurs only a dozen times in a century.
Observers in Asia, Africa and Europe will have the best view, but those in North America will only see the last 20 or 30 minutes of Mercury's five-hour-long trip across the sun, known to astronomers as a transit.
Mercury is too small -- about 1/160th the size of the Sun's diameter -- to be seen with unaided eyes, and direct telescope viewing of the transit is not recommended, because special precautions are needed to prevent permanent eye damage.
"People will see a small, perfectly round, black dot slowly moving across the solar disk," NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak said in a statement from Goddard Space Flight Centre outside Washington.