Mercury Transit

[crimbfighter]

Today was a relatively rare transit of the planet Mercury across the sun. It began at about sunrise and ended at about noon. The cruelty of life in Wisconsin is that during every cool event, the weather says, "nopety nopety nope!" However, after 99% of the transit over, and having been covered by clouds, they broke just before Mercury egressed off the solar disk in about the 2 o'clock position. I hadn't bothered to set up the telescope as I thought it was a lost cause, so I quickly grabbed a long camera lens and snapped a couple shots. It would have been spectacular through a telescope.

Mercury can be seen as a dot almost off the sun in the 2 o'clock position. I know, amazing, right?!

D500, 200-500 @ f/5.6, 500mm

And for those who cant find it, the annotated version

 

[480sparky]

I can see my house!

 

[Derrel]

At first I thought you meant a Ford Transit, and were mistaken about the brand that built the fine Transit van. LOL. And then well, the photos speak for themselves...

 

[crimbfighter]

At first I thought you meant a Ford Transit, and were mistaken about the brand that built the fine Transit van. LOL. And then well, the photos speak for themselves...

It was Mercury's lesser known copy of the Ford...

 

[Jeff15]

Nice one.......

 

[PJM]

Nice shot.

 

[tirediron]

Mehhh.... are you sure that's not sensor dust?



Nicely done; definitely a challenging capture.

 

[Jeff G]

The photo is pretty cool, I would have loved to see what you could have done with the telescope.

Derryl, I had to laugh, I drive a Transit and thought the same thing.

 

[crimbfighter]

Mehhh.... are you sure that's not sensor dust?



Nicely done; definitely a challenging capture.

Not gonna lie, I had to double check it wasnt...

 

[edsland]

Nice, I had my telescope ready and waiting till the winter storm dumped all day

 

[crimbfighter]

Nice, I had my telescope ready and waiting till the winter storm dumped all day

Yeah, it was such a bummer. Especially considering today is clear and sunny

 

[K9Kirk]

Cool pic! Just curious if you used any kind of filter.

 

[crimbfighter]

Cool pic! Just curious if you used any kind of filter.

I did, actually. And thanks for reminding me. I should have included that in the original post as I would never recommend anyone shoot or observe the sun without a filter.

I used a screw on 95mm solar filter. It is the same type of filter material you find in solar observing glasses. It basically cuts the light to .001% of actual light. Off hand I think mine is made by Thousand Oaks Optical.

 

[photoflyer]

...and a fine example of telephoto compression. The Sun is 93,000,000 miles from Earth and Mercury is 36,000,000 miles from the Sun.

 

[star camera company]

Great shot, and good to get a cloud opening. I had waited decades for the Venus transit in 2004, Yup... cloudy day. I have a 6” Refractor and use a plate at the top of the scope and view solar by projection.