Nov. 10, 2019: What will tomorrow’s transit of Mercury look like? Marek Nikodem has the answer. He watched the previous transit of Mercury (May 9, 2016) from Kcynia, Poland, and photographed the event at sunset:

Mercury is the black dot near the bottom of the sun. It’s pretty tiny. Mercury is only 1/194th of the sun’s apparent diameter. That’s why looking at the sun through ordinary eclipse glasses won’t work. You need magnification–50x or more is recommended.

A safe way to view a magnified image of the sun is the projection method. This illustration from the European Space Agency says it all:

Any telescope with a stabilizing tripod can be used to project an image of the sun onto a wall, screen or sidewalk. It’s perfectly safe as long as you don’t look into the eyepiece. Binoculars work, too, with the same precautions.

Or, just stare at your computer screen! Transit of Mercury webcasts: (1) Royal Observatory Greenwich, UK on Facebook; (2) Timeanddate.com from Stavanger, Norway; (3) Griffiths Observatory TV from Los Angeles