A Mercury Transit Sequence

Earlier this month, the planet Mercury crossed the face of the Sun , as seen from Earth . Because the plane of Mercury's orbit is not exactly coincident with the plane of Earth's orbit , Mercury usually appears to pass over or under the Sun. The above time-lapse sequence , superimposed on a single frame, was taken from a balcony in Belgium on May 7 and shows the entire transit . The solar crossing lasted over five hours, so that the above 23 images were taken roughly 15 minutes apart. The north pole of the Sun, the Earth , Mercury's orbit, although all different, all occur in directions slightly above the left of the image. Near the center and on the far right, sunspot s are visible.