Spaceweather.com presents
The Transit of Mercury

Nov. 8, 2006


Summary
: The planet Mercury passed in front of the Sun on Wednesday, Nov. 8th--a rare transit visible from the Americas, Hawaii and all around the Pacific Rim: full story.

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Unless otherwise stated, all images are copyrighted by the photographers.

  Photographer, Location, Date Larger images Comments


Larry Alvarez,
Flower Mound, Texas, USA
Nov. 8
#1, more

Note: This is a rare view of the transit seen through a violet Calcium-K filter. CaK filters reveal the bright magnetic froth around sunspots and between solar granules.

"The sight of Mercury against the full disk sun in Calcium K-line really makes one see the true size of the sun in persepective. It looks like the size of a pea compared to a big red kick ball."

Photo details: Coronado CaK 70mm scope and a Lumeneara CCD.


Jeff Polzin,
St. Jacobs, Ontario
Nov. 8
#1,

"I prefer to work in pastel for the subtle to vivid transition in color that seems unattainable in other mediums. I enjoy painting atmospheres, real and imagined."

Sketch details: Chalk pastel on charcoal.

Jim Lamm,
Arizona Sky Village, Portal, Arizona.
Nov. 8
#1, #2

Pretty hot day for mid-November: 84 degrees! The mountain shot is cool because you can see all of the tree branches a mile or more away, but Mercury had already fallen below the mountain.

Photo details: Nikon Coolpix 5000 with Scopetronix eyepiece attachment. Thousand Oaks filter on a Meade 6-inch Starfinder.

Tommy Hartline,
Burleson Texas
Nov. 08
#1, #2, more

Photo details: Celestron cpc800 series XLT. I went prime focus on the edge shot and used a 3 x barlow on the close up.

Enrico Africa,
Crawfordsville, Indiana, USA
Nov. 08
#1

This was an opportunistic seredipitous shot of the setting sun shining through some foreground trees with Mercury in full transit.

Photo details: Camera: Olympus C-3040Z @ 100 ASA Telescope: Borg 76ED on a Meade LXD-55 mount with a Baader film solar filter Afocal shot through a Meade 20mm Plossl Exposure time: 1/80 second

Jimmy Eubanks,
Boiling Springs, South Carolina
Nov. 8
#1

What a wonderful experience. I can't describe the excitement as I watched Mercury cross the limb of the Sun.

Photo details: Meade LPI and a Coronado PST Hydrogen Alpha Telescope.

Andy Dodson,
Huirangi, NZ
Nov. 8
#1, #2

We had atrocious weather for the transit with gale force winds, rain and only a few minutes of clear sky, - with clouds scudding over while I took the pics. But you don't get to choose your weather for transits, so these will have to do.

Photo details: SolarMax40 H-alpha filter, Stellarvue 80.

Schindler Leung,
Hong Kong
Nov. 8
#1, #2, #3

Even the Mercury is very tiny when compared to Venus, it’s still a great show.

Photo Details: Canon EOS 400D, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L, Kenko 2X, Baader Filter

more images: from Hao Jia of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; from Jett Aguilar of Quezon City, Philippines; from Fr. Fred Gatschet and Dr. Kendall Krug of Hays, Kansas; from Richard Bell at the Indiana Dunes State Park; from Zachary Wagner of San Ramon, California; from Sandeep Mitter of San Jose, California; from Dario Pires of Araraquara - São Paulo - Brazil; from Wade Howlett of Bullsbrook, Western Australia, Australia

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