AfterTek

A blanket of thick grey cloud failed to stop Sydney’s keenest sky watchers from snatching a peek of a rare celestial sight this morning.  At 6.12am on November 9th, the planet Mercury began passing across the face of the sun.  More than 100 people waited at the Powerhouse Museum’s Sydney Observatory to track the event, known as a transit, but for most of the cosmic show the weather refused to behave.
“The clouds were singularly unco-operative and there were only a couple of short breaks to see the sun,” said the observatory’s curator, Nick Lomb. “A few people did manage a glimpse.”

Amateur astronomer Richard Jaworski, who set up his telescope in the garden of his Carlingford home, managed to snap this view of Mercury, appearing as a small black dot against the sun’s disc, during a brief break in the clouds at 10.30am.

“There is a law in astronomy that the thickness of the cloud cover is proportional to the importance of the astronomical event,” Dr Jaworski joked later. “The clouds parted for just a few seconds and allowed me a view of the event and only just enough time to take this image,” said Dr Jaworski, a member of the Astronomical Society of NSW.

At the observatory sky gazers tucked into yellow custard tarts, each bearing a single blueberry, honouring tiny Mercury making its passage across the face of the sun. “Those who came for breakfast enjoyed the food,” said Dr Lomb. The transit ended at 11.10am. 

Transits of Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, only happen about 13 times a century. The next one visible from Sydney will not occur until November 13, 2032. Astronomers in Melbourne were luckier there the sky remained sunny and clear.