Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

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Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by Starry Jack »

I believe I will have a 10 minute and a 5 minute window to catch the transit when the local trees will not be in the way. The five minute window will be as Mercury touches the limb so maybe I will get a prom as well!


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by MalVeauX »

Depends on the weather entirely. :(

Very best,


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by marktownley »

Incredibly unlikely...


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by robert »

might see some clouds but I am hoping! 🙄


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by Montana »

I am going to do some solar outreach at work (the car park has a view of the Sun unlike at home :) ) however, that almost certainly means it will be cloudy or wet.

Alexandra


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by ffellah »

It looks like it is going to be cloudy on Monday Jack, but you never know...

Franco


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by Stardust5858 »

Looks like I'll be clouded out unfortunately.


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by Valery »

They give us a good chances to catch Mercury - first and second contacts and some time of the transit begin.
The colser to the transit the better they adjust their forecast.
I will use my 150mm refractor stopped to 111mm with a Quark Combo at F/27 and Basler 1920-155 camera.


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by Starry Jack »

I’m forecasted for sun. I will use 152mm stopped to 95mm and quark.


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by MapleRidge »

I plan to observe/image if the weather is cooperative...one forecast is cloud/rain the other is mostly sunny. I can already guess which one will prevail :? :?

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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by Carbon60 »

I’m hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. Reports are not looking promising. I’m planning to be mobile to chase the better weather, but even then I doubt I’ll be successful.

Good luck everyone.

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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by Starry Jack »

I have to laugh...I have been testing the timing of the event with my landscape...this led me to trimming some 20’ high vegetation on top of a very tall ladder. When I got back down after an hour of work I realized all I did was clear the telescope path to see the blocking palm trees on the neighbor property!!

Ah well, I still have two small windows and clear skies projected. And a prayer that I get to see mercury and a prom juxtaposed. :)


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by DeepSolar64 »

I plan to watch it. Weather permitting. I'll be observing the event from Rock Hill SC with a friend. He will have his Takahashi FS 102 set up for white light viewing. I wish he had a DayStar Quark for it.


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by george9 »

I too am hoping for clear skies. I may go small just because of the low chance and don't want to break a big scope down in the rain.

Some of you probably saw this on CN, but here is fun thing to do on timing. See how much sooner Mercury hits the Sun (or later it leaves) due to seeing the chromosphere. It seemed to me that the May 7, 2003 Mercury transit ended up to one minute later than expected for the photosphere because it was somewhat of a graze.

I calculated what transits we have that hit the chromosphere but miss the photosphere and therefore are not recorded as transits. It ended up in Sky and Telescope in 2003 with the calculations. The next Venus transit is June 3, 2020 when Venus is 38% of a solar diameter away from the photosphere. We would need a gigantic prominence to catch that one. Mercury had one November 17, 2012, but I forgot to look. It was 25% of a solar diameter away, so that one was very unlikely also. November 16, 2045 is a potential good one, with Mercury 6% of a solar diameter away. That one could very well be seen, although likely not by me.

Then there are the more common coronal transits, which I think may still visible from the satellite archives. We can watch the Venus 2020 one.

George


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by eroel »

Hi:
Planning to go to the rural observatory this weekend and if clear, will stay until Monday morning to get the transit.
Still having clouds and rain over the region, so I hope I have the luck to see it.
Best wishes to all,
Eric.


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by Stardust5858 »

[img]
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I've just cleaned my lunts second stack erf and the single stack objective. There was a few dust particles that I could see on each. Left the etalons well alone, lol. Anyway if it's clear is there any way of picking up Mercury just b4 it transits the disk? Would increased exposure on camera settings work as per imaging proms?


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Fortunately if the weather fails I have the NSO GONG network and NASA SDO to fall back on for an excellent, if not quite as personal a view. And of course all you guys and gals who weather permitting post excellent images and descriptions!

The wonders of the internet.

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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by pedro »

If the weather permits I will observe the transit from my observatories, fingers crossed


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by Starry Jack »

StarDust,
I don’t know how to pick up a pre transit mercury.

I may have figured a way to pick up another ten minutes on my second time window...if I throw a rope with a grappling hook to a branch 50’ up and can bend it out of the way, I might extend my time.

The things we do!


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by Stardust5858 »

Go for it Starry Jack, nothing ventured nothing gained, lol.


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by OTangen »

Hi!

Snow is forecasted here in Norway on Monday. But I will keep an eye on the clouds. One never knows :)

Good luck to everybody!
Øivind Tangen
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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by Starry Jack »

I will post what I have done tomorrow. I have ropes on tree branches pulling them down, the roof of the observatory off, bushes trimmed,,,all for a few more minutes.


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Re: Anybody going to catch the Mercury Transit?

Post by MapleRidge »

Hi Jack...
Good luck with the event considering the extra work needed to squeeze a few ore minutes out of it!

Cloud and snow in the forecast now...I don't think I can fix this with ropes :o

Brian


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