AMATEUR astronomers tracked the transit of Mercury from the grounds of the Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle.

The Teesdale U3A group set up their telescopes on the museum’s forecourt for the event, which started just after noon on May 9.

U3A members Chris Walker, Peter Blackwood and project leader Robert Hartness set up three telescopes for the event with Mr Hartness taking a total of 76 photographs of the whole transit.

He said: “There was great excitement when, Mercury obliged us by appearing at the edge of the suns’ perimeter bang on time at 12.12 BST.

“The first photo in the series shows the planet as a tiny dark circle taking a delicate bite out of the giant hot sun.

“Of course, our Baader Solar Filter provided a lovely white sun that showed of entry of the dark planet into the sun’s perimeter easily, despite its diminutive size.”

He added: “The incredible thing it that the leading edge of the black dot in the photo has covered more like 3,032 miles by the time the planet is completely across the Sun’s perimeter.

“It travels in a straight line down the sun’s surface at an angle of about 60 degrees to the vertical.

“The next twenty photographs showed this tiny planet flashing across the surface of the sun at a really hot pace of 105,974 mph.”

It will not be seen again until November 2018 and after that not again until 2035.

For more information visit astronomyinteesdale.com or twitter.com.iastronomy

You can also email Mr Hartness at sky@astronomyinteesdale.com