Transit of Mercury, May 9, 2016 - Time to Prepare

I just received the May issue of Sky and Telescope magazine. In it there are two articles about the transit of Mercury coming up in May. So now's the time to prepare for that interesting event. You'll need a white light solar filter and a telescope/lens with enough focal length to adequately display the event. Best order your filter now while there is still time and there are adequate supplies on hand.

Transits of Mercury while not as rare as those involving Venus are interesting nonetheless. They give a nice display of the relative sizes of planets and the Sun. What follows is an image from the Mercury transit on November 8, 2006 using a Baader Planetarium white light filter. This link includes directions for making your own cell for the filter.


Mercury Transit with sunspot - Celestron-8 2000 mm, f/10 with 40mm eyepiece (50X), afocal

Here's the imaging rig used for the above image:


Celestron-8 with Baader Planetarium White Light Filter on site for the annular eclipse of the Sun in 2014

I like the Baader filter because it gives a nice neutral color. Other filters have a strong orange or blue color bias.

The Wiki article in the above link is an interesting read. The upcoming transit is visible in whole or in part from most of the populated Earth except far eastern Asia, western Pacific, Australia & New Zealand.



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Best Regards,
Russ

RustierOne said:

I just received the May issue of Sky and Telescope magazine. In it there are two articles about the transit of Mercury coming up in May. So now's the time to prepare for that interesting event. You'll need a white light solar filter and a telescope/lens with enough focal length to adequately display the event. Best order your filter now while there is still time and there are adequate supplies on hand.

Transits of Mercury while not as rare as those involving Venus are interesting nonetheless. They give a nice display of the relative sizes of planets and the Sun. What follows is an image from the Mercury transit on November 8, 2006 using a Baader Planetarium white light filter. This link includes directions for making your own cell for the filter.


Mercury Transit with sunspot - Celestron-8 2000 mm, f/10 with 40mm eyepiece (50X), afocal

Here's the imaging rig used for the above image:


Celestron-8 with Baader Planetarium White Light Filter on site for the annular eclipse of the Sun in 2014

I like the Baader filter because it gives a nice neutral color. Other filters have a strong orange or blue color bias.

The Wiki article in the above link is an interesting read. The upcoming transit is visible in whole or in part from most of the populated Earth except far eastern Asia, western Pacific, Australia & New Zealand.

Click to expand...

Just a reminder to plan for the transit of Mercury on May 9, 2016. The Sky and Telescope website has a nice article on this event and some tips for observing or photography.

In my location the Sun will rise with the transit already in progress. But by the end Mercury will have attained an elevation of almost 58°. So it should be decent prospects for photographing the latter stages of the transit.

--
Best Regards,
Russ

I've had this transit on my calendar for quite a while now. The transit will be in progress when the Sun rises in my area too, but the Sun will be high in the SE to SW sky during the latter part so I will be able to sit on my front porch and capture it. WX permitting of course. After all this is springtime in tornado alley and we are still having more rain than normal thanks to the El Nino.

Also, the Eta Aquariids peak the night of May 6-7. It is not a particularly great meteor shower, but probably a good one to practice some techniques. The Moon will not be an issue this year. Even if you have seen a trillion meteors per hour in the past, as some like to brag, it is still good to be able to practice and try out new ideas for capturing images of meteors.

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Jack Swinden
W5JCK, amateur radio operator
An astrophotography hobbyist and amateur radio instructor and examiner. Sony a7 and Sony a6000. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden/albums