The transit of Mercury happens only 13 times every 100 years and the good news is that Queenslanders are best placed to capture the action, Queensland University of Technology astrophysics expert Dr Stephen Hughes says.

Dr Hughes, from QUT's School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, said that this Thursday (November 9) between 5.12am and 10.10am the planet Mercury would pass across the face of the sun, an event known as a 'transit'.

"The transit will be visible only from the east coast of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and the west coast of the USA," he said.

"Only the planets Mercury and Venus can transit the sun as their orbits lie between the Earth and sun."

Dr Hughes said the sunrise on November 9 would occur at 4.52am, and the sun would only be about five degrees above the horizon when Mercury began its five-hour journey across the face of the sun.

"The last transit occurred on May 7, 2003 and the next one isn't due until November 13, 2032," he said.

Dr Hughes said Mercury was shrouded in mystery.

"Being so close to the sun, it is not possible to obtain detailed images of Mercury through either Earth or space-based telescopes," he said.

"In 1974-1975 the Mariner 10 spacecraft photographed Mercury from close range revealing a surface pockmarked with craters strongly reminiscent of the moon."

Dr Hughes said that because it was dangerous to look at the sun with the naked eye, budding astronomers should use technology to ensure they don't miss viewing this rare event.

"An excellent planetarium computer program for either PCs or Macs can be used to preview transits of Mercury, and is available free from www.stellarium.org," he said.

"Another option is to visit an observatory such as the South Burnett - Maidenwell Observatory, just over two hours north west of Brisbane, where a live video image taken through a solar telescope will be piped through to the observatory theatre.

"It is also possible to view the transit using a telescope to project an image of the sun onto a screen. Mercury will appear as a tiny dot against the sun.

"If the image of the sun projected onto the screen were 20cm in diameter, Mercury would appear as a dot only 1mm in diameter."