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Mercury is a very difficult subject because it never rises very high in the sky after dark. This image was taken 54 minutes after sunset when Mercury was at an altitude of only 8.5 degrees. It is not a good image, but at least the phase can be seen. The image was taken on 30th March 2004, one day after Mercury was at maximum eastern elongation, with my ETX125 and X2 teleadaptor and ToUcam. |
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There are not many opportunities to see Mercury. Here it is in conjunction with Venus in a brief spell clear almost to the horizon. (To see which is which, move your mouse over the picture.) It is way out of range from my observatory, so this picture was taken from my front drive, across a busy road and dodging a street lamp (the house is painted white). The picture was taken, 72 minutes after sunset, with my Cannon 1000D DSLR camera fitted with an SLR zoom lens operating at 85 mm. Mercury was at an altitude of 5° 46'. Two days later the pair were joined by the Moon. Date and Time: 12th April 2010 20:06 UT Camera: Cannon 1000D Telescope: 85mm SLR lens at f5.6 Processing: PhotoImpact. Contrast 25, Brightness 25. |
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On 7th May 2003 there was a transit of the planet Mercury
across the face of the Sun. It started at 05:13 UT (06:13 BST) and finished at 10:31.
This picture of the whole Sun was taken at 09:16 using a 270mm SLR lens and a ToUcam. |
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This close picture of Mercury passing across the face of the Sun was taken at 06:24 UT. The slight halo around the black image is not an atmosphere (Mercury has none) but is caused by the poor seeing at that time in the morning (the altitude of Mercury was only 17 degrees). The image was taken at prime focus of my ETX125. |
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This image was taken at 10:25 UT, just before the end of the transit, with a ToUcam at prime focus of my ETX125. | ||