This rare event will not be visible again in New Zealand until 2052 !

Three telescopes were set up to allow maximum viewing time for every person and a large scale projection of the Sun's disk was made. Solar prominences were also seen through a rare Hydrogen Alpha filter, and sunspots were observed through a special glass blocking filter which is being imported especially for this event.

Read a full report of our observing session here.

For background information on transits of Mercury and Venus, click here.

Left: Photograph taken through a hydrogen-alpha filter showing the last transit of Mercury in 2003. Also visible are solar prominences. Photo: William Phelps, Peninsula Astronomical Society, CA, USA.

Above: Photo of the last transit of Mercury in 2003 showing Mercury at ingress.

Above: Animation of the 9 Nov 2006 transit - Note NZ summer time = UT + 13 hrs (image courtesy of NASA).

You can view an archive of the live webcast of this transit from the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona, USA by clicking here. You will need to install RealPlayer if you haven't already.