About 8:58 AM EDT this morning, Mercury (The round black dot) is seen beginning its transit in front of the sun. (Sunspots are visible above.) Image at about 600 mm f 6.3, 1/400 sec, hand held.
As usual, click on to view closer, and Comments are always welcoms. M 🙂
I was wondering why it was so dark yesterday. Dick
From: mvschulze To: dm724candelmo@yahoo.com Sent: Monday, May 9, 2016 7:30 AM Subject: [New post] Mercury Transiting the Sun, today 5/9/16 #yiv9963599386 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv9963599386 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv9963599386 a.yiv9963599386primaryactionlink:link, #yiv9963599386 a.yiv9963599386primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv9963599386 a.yiv9963599386primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv9963599386 a.yiv9963599386primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv9963599386 WordPress.com | mvschulze posted: “About 8:58 AM EDT this morning, Mercury (The round black dot) is seen beginning it’s transit in front of the sun. (Sunspots are visible above.) Image at about 600 mm f 6.3, 1/400 sec, hand held. As usual, click on to view closer, and Comments are always” | |
Hope you were not hiding under you kayaks! I know Frisco is a little closer to Mercury than here in NJ, but you’d need to be a lot closer for a total Mercurian eclipse of the sun! 🙂
oK, i’ve been remiss with my image pro cessing and camera pointing skills. Are you implying that you simply point and shoot at the sun? No smoked glass filter, black garbage bag, burnt out sensors or melted optics? I’m charging my batts now, so quiick, stop me before I shoot again! ( I was trying to build s pin-hole box, but the mercury kept running out of the cracks.
Sent from my iPod – 3DegK
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Ha! In fact I use what is known as a neutral density filter mounted in front of the objective lens (or the corrector lens on your ETX.) Of course, as you know, we need to always advise never to point an optical device at the sun without proper use of a recommended filter. M 🙂
I thought it was tonight! I missed the whole thing!!!
well…. The next chance will be 11/11/2019, and if it’s cloudy, 11/13/2032! 🙁
Neat.
What level ND filter?
I purchased this filter a few years ago: Orion 4.10″ ID Full Aperture Solar Filter
$79.99. Although there is no cited ND value, I believe it is about a 10 stop. and similiar in color. It nicely fits over the Tameron 150 – 600 telephoto barrel via foam insert. Check it out on Google. M 🙂
Ah, I was wondering about that . . . I think solar filters are not the same and a few steps above 10 ND filters. That’s what I remember . . .
. . . wait! This just in: Solar Filters are the equivalent of 13 or 14 stops or 0.01% light transmission.
Awesome Photo. Congratulations!