Tiny Planet Promoted to "King of Pain"

The planet Mercury pulls a mini-eclipse tomorrow afternoon, appearing as a little black spot on the sun.

The event, known to astronomers and "Battlestar Galactica" fans as a transit, begins at 2:12 p.m. and ends for Silver Spring's star gazers at sunset. The transit should not be viewed without a specially filtered telescope, warns the Washington Post.

The Silver Spring/Takoma Park campus of Montgomery College has filtered scopes galore and will host a transit tailgate on the roof of the King Street parking garage. Cloudy skies will bring the show to the garage's first floor, where images from the Left Coast will be projected on a screen. Cubicle dwellers can also watch the transit safely through San Francisco's Exploratorium science museum website.

Transits of Mercury occur at erratic intervals--every 7, 13 or 33 years, depending on its mood--and take place in either November or May. Mercury passes between Earth and the sun every 116 days, though it's usually not in view, explains the Baltimore Sun.

Queue The Police . . . There's a little black spot on the sun today.

Image courtesy of the Baltimore Sun.

"Mercury in the Spotlight" (Washington Post)
"Seek Transit Glory With View of Mercury and Sun" (Baltimore Sun)
"Transit of Mercury" (Montgomery College)