All,
Today I observed the transit with a close friend of mine who lives in Rock Hill SC. We had some high clouds early but it later ended up to a clear blue sky so we got to observe the entire event. We used three scopes. My Orion 70mm white light solar telescope and Meade Coronado SolarMax II 60mm Ha Solar telescope. He outfitted his Takahashi FS 102 apochromatic refractor with Baader Astrosolar film for white light observing and used his Nikon DSLR to do some photography as well. I used only my iPhone to the eyepiece for pictures.
I also followed the event closely using the NSO GONG Network and SDO site.
It was a different experience watching that tiny perfect BB cross the sun and realizing it was a planet. If the pre-enlightenment world would have had telescopes this would have been proof-positive that we were NOT the center of the solar system!
My pics are not the greatest but I will post them anyway.
We used magnifications from 16x all the way up to 176x. Seeing was pretty rough.
James
P.S. The pics are taken using the Orion 70mm. Obviously not an APO! I plan to get a Baader continuum filter to reduce the effects of Chromatic Aberration.
Mercury Transit from Rock Hill SC
- DeepSolar64
- Way More Fun to Share It!!
- Posts: 19123
- Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2019 12:19 am
- Location: Lowndesville S.C.
- Has thanked: 17916 times
- Been thanked: 17060 times
Mercury Transit from Rock Hill SC
- Attachments
-
- PNG image 5.png (1.55 MiB) Viewed 549 times
-
- 50xOrion70mmWL.JPG (60.37 KiB) Viewed 549 times
-
- Transit observing.JPG (7.17 MiB) Viewed 549 times
Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars
Orion 70mm Solar Telescope
Celestron AstroMaster Alt/Az Mount
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 60 DS
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 90 DS
Meade Coronado AZS Alt/Az Mount
Astro-Tech AT72EDII with Altair solar wedge
Celestron NexStar 102GT with Altair solar wedge
Losmandy AZ8 Alt/Az Mount
Sky-Watcher AZGTI Alt-Az GoTo mount
Cameras: ZWO ASI178MM, PGR Grasshopper, PGR Flea
Lunt, Coronado, TeleVue, Orion and Meade eyepieces
Visual Observer
" Way more fun to see it! "
Orion 70mm Solar Telescope
Celestron AstroMaster Alt/Az Mount
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 60 DS
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 90 DS
Meade Coronado AZS Alt/Az Mount
Astro-Tech AT72EDII with Altair solar wedge
Celestron NexStar 102GT with Altair solar wedge
Losmandy AZ8 Alt/Az Mount
Sky-Watcher AZGTI Alt-Az GoTo mount
Cameras: ZWO ASI178MM, PGR Grasshopper, PGR Flea
Lunt, Coronado, TeleVue, Orion and Meade eyepieces
Visual Observer
" Way more fun to see it! "
- MAURITS
- Way More Fun to Share It!!
- Posts: 8681
- Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2018 4:37 pm
- Location: Belgium
- Has thanked: 2496 times
- Been thanked: 4917 times
- Contact:
- Montana
- Librarian
- Posts: 34730
- Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:25 pm
- Location: Cheshire, UK
- Has thanked: 18050 times
- Been thanked: 8914 times
Re: Mercury Transit from Rock Hill SC
Wonderful!! I am glad you had some good skies to see this tiny tiny planet. I wonder what the Sun looks like in the sky from that little world?
Alexandra
Alexandra
- DeepSolar64
- Way More Fun to Share It!!
- Posts: 19123
- Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2019 12:19 am
- Location: Lowndesville S.C.
- Has thanked: 17916 times
- Been thanked: 17060 times
Re: Mercury Transit from Rock Hill SC
Yes, I am thankful to see it. Clouds knocked me out of the Venus transit several years ago. I won't live near long enough to see the next one. I gotta settle for pictures and videos on this one.
Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars
Orion 70mm Solar Telescope
Celestron AstroMaster Alt/Az Mount
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 60 DS
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 90 DS
Meade Coronado AZS Alt/Az Mount
Astro-Tech AT72EDII with Altair solar wedge
Celestron NexStar 102GT with Altair solar wedge
Losmandy AZ8 Alt/Az Mount
Sky-Watcher AZGTI Alt-Az GoTo mount
Cameras: ZWO ASI178MM, PGR Grasshopper, PGR Flea
Lunt, Coronado, TeleVue, Orion and Meade eyepieces
Visual Observer
" Way more fun to see it! "
Orion 70mm Solar Telescope
Celestron AstroMaster Alt/Az Mount
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 60 DS
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 90 DS
Meade Coronado AZS Alt/Az Mount
Astro-Tech AT72EDII with Altair solar wedge
Celestron NexStar 102GT with Altair solar wedge
Losmandy AZ8 Alt/Az Mount
Sky-Watcher AZGTI Alt-Az GoTo mount
Cameras: ZWO ASI178MM, PGR Grasshopper, PGR Flea
Lunt, Coronado, TeleVue, Orion and Meade eyepieces
Visual Observer
" Way more fun to see it! "
- marktownley
- Librarian
- Posts: 42614
- Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 5:27 pm
- Location: Brierley Hills, UK
- Has thanked: 20908 times
- Been thanked: 10562 times
- Contact:
Re: Mercury Transit from Rock Hill SC
Looks like you had a lot of fun, nice shots!
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
- eroel
- Way More Fun to Share It!!
- Posts: 9455
- Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2011 10:45 pm
- Location: México D.F.
- Been thanked: 5003 times
Re: Mercury Transit from Rock Hill SC
James:
A nice transit session in spite of clouds.
Best wishes,
Eric.
A nice transit session in spite of clouds.
Best wishes,
Eric.