Digital art: These are my original works of art. They took few hours to paint. I used paint brushes and paints to paint them-- but did everything at computer!

It was a perfect day for the transit of Mercury in southern California as Fred Bruenjes, working with DayStar Filters, LLC, captured this amazing view of Mercury a few minutes before the transit started. Mercury passed in front of a small prominence on the limb.

Photo details: This image was photographed with a full front aperture red ERF, 5" F8 refractor, 4x powermate, a Daystar 0.45Å University H-Alpha filter, 0.63x SCT reducer/corrector, camera (based on KAI-0340DM chip), all mounted piggyback on an 8" F10 Meade LX200. More images can be viewed at www.hydrogenalpha.com

Image (C)2006 Fred Bruenjes - All Rights Reserved

A tiny planet appears to skim the surface of a giant Sun! Now I know why its so hot on Mercury.

Trying to find tiny Mecury on the face of the Sun was a little difficult with only a small pair of binoculars and a digital camera, and trying to dodge clouds, wind, and other things. If you have trouble finding Mercury, hint: It is the smallest of the three objects in this picture

Cloudy Michigan only gave a peek here and there of the show going on in the distance.

Photo details: Orion 80 ED telescope and Nikon D50 camera all mounted on camera tripod. One exposure 1/20 sec @ 800 iso.

It was very interesting to compare the size of Mercury to the larger sunspot nearby.

Photo details: (#1) H-alpha image - Televue 85mm refractor with Coronado 40mm filter, Canon 20Da camera, 26mm eyepiece projection. (#2) White light image - Meade 8" SCT with 1000 Oaks type 2 glass filter, Nikon D100 camera, 26mm eyepiece projection. The third photo (#3) shows me and the two telescopes used to take the above images together on a Losmandy G11 mount.

Photo details: Meade ETX-105 with solar filter and Canon 20D.