Here's a few pictures I took of the Mercury Transit
on 11/15/99. These were taken at approximately 5 minute intervals, not tightly timed because of
the setup. I'd set up both scopes in the parking lot where I once worked. The small one is the 4.5"
newtonian, modified a'la Rik Hill of A.L.P.O. in Tucson. The big one is obviously the C8 with
a full aperture Thousand Oaks Type 2 filter installed. These are the first prints from the
negatives, and the scanner sucks, so my apologies for the "quality". I'm going to have these
redone at a higher end photo shop soon, so stay tuned.
NEVER, EVER LOOK AT
THE SUN WITHOUT TAKING PROPER SAFETY RECAUTIONS!
Enjoy!
Here's a picture of the basic setup. On the far right is the solar telescope.
Next to it on the left
is the 8" SCT, showing the "Pieramyd mount" and the solar filter.
Here's a prime focus shot of the sun before the actual transit began. Note the large
sunspot group just above smack in the middle. There's also a group on either side
and below center.
Shortly after first contact.
About 5 minutes later.
Nicely on the disk of the sun.
Halfway...?
Just about done...
Third contact
Maybe 2 minutes left....
This was really a cool thing to see! And what a busy week. Two days later, I stayed up all
night watching the Leonid meteor "shower". Not much this year compared to last, but last
year was amazing anyway. Anyway, I got lots of folks from work to look through the scope
and lots of "oohs" and "ahs" and "That's cools"! It was fun.
Page URL: http://www.stonehavenobservatory.com/Mertrans.html
Copyright 1999, Steve Dodder Webmaster : Steve Dodder
Revised: 7/22/10