Watch the 2003 Mercury transit with SOHO

These images are updating continuously from SOHO and may take some minutes to download. Please remember to refresh your page.

Some users who are experiencing difficulties in accessing the live images, due to exceptionally high traffic on the SOHO server at Goddard Spaceflight Center. The still image above was taken by SOHO's EIT instrument at 09.54 UT. Visit SOHO hotshots for more still images and videos.

Image from the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT)

During the morning of 7 May 2003, the planet Mercury will slip across the face of the Sun in a rare event, known as a transit. There are only about 12 celestial alignments like this every century and you cannot view them safely without special telescopic equipment. So, let the ESA/NASA solar watchdog, SOHO, do all the hard work for you...just remember to keep refreshing this page and the images will change!