Solar System - Transits
Transit of Mercury Composite Across the Sun
A composite of the November 11, 2019 Transit of Mercury across the disk of the Sun, on a day with no sunspots on the Sun. The temperature was about -20° C to -15° C this morning but the sky was perfectly clear. This takes in the last 2.5 hours of the 5.5-hour event. The Sun rose at 7:50 a.m. MST this morning from my location in Alberta, Canada, with the transit in progress. But for the first 45 minutes or so the Sun’s image was so distorted from atmospheric turbulence that Mercury recorded only as a fuzzy blur. So images from mid-transit at 8:19 a.m. were not usable. I was not going to “fake in” images from later in the set. The 16 images composited here start at 8:32 a..m. MST, at left, shortly after mid-transit, and end with Mercury just beginning its egress of the disk at right at 11:02 a.m., with images for the composite selected at 10-minute intervals. I actually shot frames every 15 seconds for a possible time-lapse, for 700 images in total. North is up here, with Mercury moving from left to right, east to west, across the Sun above the ecliptic which itself is angled up in relation to the cardinal directions. All were with the Canon EOS Ra camera in its cropped-frame mode, and taken through the Astro-Physics 130mm apochromatic refractor at f/6 for 800mm focal length, on an equatorial mount tracking the Sun, and through a Kendrick Mylar solar filter. The image is further cropped in processing. The yellow tint to the Sun was added in processing.
Transit of Mercury Composite Across the Sun v2
A composite of the November 11, 2019 Transit of Mercury across the disk of the Sun, on a day with no sunspots on the Sun. The temperature was about -20° C to -15° C this morning but the sky was perfectly clear. This takes in the last 3 hours of the 5.5-hour event starting at 8:05 a.m., just before mid-transit at 8:19 a.m. MST. The Sun rose at 7:50 a.m. MST this morning from my location in Alberta, Canada, with the transit in progress. But for the first few minutes the Sun’s image was so distorted from atmospheric turbulence that Mercury recorded only as a fuzzy blur. As it is, the disks of Mercury from early in the morning are soft and distorted. The 37 images composited here start at 8:05 a..m. MST, at left, 12 minutes before mid-transit, and end with Mercury just beginning its egress of the disk at right at 11:02 a.m., with images for the composite selected at 5-minute intervals. I actually shot frames every 15 seconds for a time-lapse, for 700 images in total. The images are stacked in Photoshop with the Darken Color blend mode. North is up here, with Mercury moving from left to right, east to west, across the Sun above the ecliptic which itself is angled up in relation to the cardinal directions. All were with the Canon 60Da camera, and taken through the Astro-Physics 105mm apochromatic refractor with a 2X Barlow giving f/12 at 1200mm focal length, on an equatorial mount tracking the Sun, and through a Thousand Oaks metal-on-glass solar filter. The yellow tint on the Sun is what the filter provides.
The Transit of Mercury Across the Sun (11 am MST)
Mercury in transit on the disk of the Sun, at 11:01 am MST on November 11, 2019, only 3 minutes before egress. I shot from home in southern Alberta on a beautfully clear morning but with temperature a chilly -20° C at sunrise and warming to -12° by end of transit. THis was the last transit of Mercury until 2032, but the last visible from North America until 2049! I shot this with the cropped frame Canon 60Da camera on the Astro-Physics 105mm Traveler refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1200mm at f/12. This was 1/500 second at ISO 100 through a metal-coated Thousand Oaks solar filter yielding the yellow tint.
The Transit of Mercury Across the Sun (10 am MST)
Mercury in transit on the disk of the Sun, at 10:01 am MST on November 11, 2019, a little less than an hour before egress. I shot from home in southern Alberta on a beautfully clear morning but with temperature a chilly -20° C at sunrise and warming to -12° by end of transit. THis was the last transit of Mercury until 2032, but the last visible from North America until 2049! I shot this with the cropped frame Canon 60Da camera on the Astro-Physics 105mm Traveler refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1200mm at f/12. This was 1/500 second at ISO 100 through a metal-coated Thousand Oaks solar filter yielding the yellow tint.
Mercury at Mid-Transit (November 11, 2019)
Mercury at the middle of its transit across the Sun on November 11, 2019, here at 8:19 a.m. MST. This was and is as close to the centre of the Sun’s disk as Mercury will come in any transit of the 21st century. So this is a unique view. The disk of Mercury is soft and the limb of the Sun ripply, as the Sun was low from my location at this time, having only risen 30 minutes earlier. North is up in this view while the path of Mercury acrioss the Sun was left to right, but angled up from about 8 pm to 2 pm on the clock. I shot this through the 105mm aperture Astro-Physics Traveler refractor with a 2X Barlow for f/12 and 1200mm focal length, with the Canon 60Da cropped frame camera and with a Thousand Oaks metal on glass solar filter which provides the colour of the Sun. This is one frame from 700 shot for a time-lapse and composite.
Transit of Mercury (May 9, 2016) Composite
A composite image of the May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury across the Sun, with Mercury at a perfect “inferior conjunction” between the Sun and Earth. Transits happen only rarely, about 13 per century. The next is November 11, 2019. Then in 2032. From my location in Kamloops, British Columbia the early stages of the transit were not visible (the transit was in progress at sunrise) and for the first hour or so after sunrise clouds close to the horizon prevented me from starting a consistent sequence of images until about 7:00 a.m. PDT, some 3 hours into the 7-hour-long transit. From then on I took images every 30 seconds. For this composite I used every 14th image to create a sequence showing Mercury moving across the Sun at 7 minute intervals, until it egressed at lower right at about 11:38 a.m. PDT. I stacked a total of 40 images. For all images I used the 130mm f/6 Astro-Physics refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm and the Canon 60Da camera (at ISO 100) to yield an image size with the Sun just filling the frame. Exposures were 1/250th second through a Kendrick white light Mylar filter. Yellow colouration of the solar disk added in processing. The telescope was on the Mach 1 equatorial mlount tracking the Sun though imperfectly polar aligned, requiring manual alignment of the disk images in Photoshop to compensate for the image drift. The 40 images of Mercury are not all perfect dots nor equal in size due to the variations in seeing conditions from frame to frame. Some frames were sharper than others. I’ve not “cheated” and placed a perfectly sharp disk image cloned and positioned across the Sun to create a more perfect simulation. The solar disk however, comes from just one of the frames toward the middle of the sequence in mid-morning, when seeing conditions were best. Stacking all the disk images would produce smeared sunpsots and disk detail due to the rotation of the Sun over the 4.5 hours of this sequence. The other 39 images were stacked with Darken blend mode and masked to reveal just the disk of Mercury.
Transit of Mercury (May 9, 2016) Composite
A composite image of the May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury across the Sun, with Mercury at a perfect “inferior conjunction” between the Sun and Earth. Transits happen only rarely, about 13 per century. The next is November 11, 2019. Then in 2032. From my location in Kamloops, British Columbia the early stages of the transit were not visible (the transit was in progress at sunrise) and for the first hour or so after sunrise clouds close to the horizon prevented me from starting a consistent sequence of images until about 7:00 a.m. PDT, some 3 hours into the 7-hour-long transit. From then on I took images every 30 seconds. For this composite I used every 14th image to create a sequence showing Mercury moving across the Sun at 7 minute intervals, until it egressed at lower right at about 11:38 a.m. PDT. I stacked a total of 40 images. For all images I used the 130mm f/6 Astro-Physics refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm and the Canon 60Da camera (at ISO 100) to yield an image size with the Sun just filling the frame. Exposures were 1/250th second through a Kendrick white light Mylar filter. Yellow colouration of the solar disk added in processing. The telescope was on the Mach 1 equatorial mlount tracking the Sun though imperfectly polar aligned, requiring manual alignment of the disk images in Photoshop to compensate for the image drift. The 40 images of Mercury are not all perfect dots nor equal in size due to the variations in seeing conditions from frame to frame. Some frames were sharper than others. I’ve not “cheated” and placed a perfectly sharp disk image cloned and positioned across the Sun to create a more perfect simulation. The solar disk however, comes from just one of the frames toward the middle of the sequence in mid-morning, when seeing conditions were best. Stacking all the disk images would produce smeared sunpsots and disk detail due to the rotation of the Sun over the 4.5 hours of this sequence. The other 39 images were stacked with Darken blend mode and masked to reveal just the disk of Mercury.
Transit of Mercury (May 9, 2016) Composite with Arrow
A composite image of the May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury across the Sun, with Mercury at a perfect “inferior conjunction” between the Sun and Earth. Transits happen only rarely, about 13 per century. The next is November 11, 2019. Then in 2032. From my location in Kamloops, British Columbia the early stages of the transit were not visible (the transit was in progress at sunrise) and for the first hour or so after sunrise clouds close to the horizon prevented me from starting a consistent sequence of images until about 7:00 a.m. PDT, some 3 hours into the 7-hour-long transit. From then on I took images every 30 seconds. For this composite I used every 14th image to create a sequence showing Mercury moving across the Sun at 7 minute intervals, until it egressed at lower right at about 11:38 a.m. PDT. I stacked a total of 40 images. For all images I used the 130mm f/6 Astro-Physics refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm and the Canon 60Da camera (at ISO 100) to yield an image size with the Sun just filling the frame. Exposures were 1/250th second through a Kendrick white light Mylar filter. Yellow colouration of the solar disk added in processing. The telescope was on the Mach 1 equatorial mlount tracking the Sun though imperfectly polar aligned, requiring manual alignment of the disk images in Photoshop to compensate for the image drift. The 40 images of Mercury are not all perfect dots nor equal in size due to the variations in seeing conditions from frame to frame. Some frames were sharper than others. I’ve not “cheated” and placed a perfectly sharp disk image cloned and positioned across the Sun to create a more perfect simulation. The solar disk however, comes from just one of the frames toward the middle of the sequence in mid-morning, when seeing conditions were best. Stacking all the disk images would produce smeared sunpsots and disk detail due to the rotation of the Sun over the 4.5 hours of this sequence. The other 39 images were stacked with Darken blend mode and masked to reveal just the disk of Mercury.
Transit of Mercury (May 9, 2016) Composite with Arrow
A composite image of the May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury across the Sun, with Mercury at a perfect “inferior conjunction” between the Sun and Earth. Transits happen only rarely, about 13 per century. The next is November 11, 2019. Then in 2032. From my location in Kamloops, British Columbia the early stages of the transit were not visible (the transit was in progress at sunrise) and for the first hour or so after sunrise clouds close to the horizon prevented me from starting a consistent sequence of images until about 7:00 a.m. PDT, some 3 hours into the 7-hour-long transit. From then on I took images every 30 seconds. For this composite I used every 14th image to create a sequence showing Mercury moving across the Sun at 7 minute intervals, until it egressed at lower right at about 11:38 a.m. PDT. I stacked a total of 40 images. For all images I used the 130mm f/6 Astro-Physics refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm and the Canon 60Da camera (at ISO 100) to yield an image size with the Sun just filling the frame. Exposures were 1/250th second through a Kendrick white light Mylar filter. Yellow colouration of the solar disk added in processing. The telescope was on the Mach 1 equatorial mlount tracking the Sun though imperfectly polar aligned, requiring manual alignment of the disk images in Photoshop to compensate for the image drift. The 40 images of Mercury are not all perfect dots nor equal in size due to the variations in seeing conditions from frame to frame. Some frames were sharper than others. I’ve not “cheated” and placed a perfectly sharp disk image cloned and positioned across the Sun to create a more perfect simulation. The solar disk however, comes from just one of the frames toward the middle of the sequence in mid-morning, when seeing conditions were best. Stacking all the disk images would produce smeared sunpsots and disk detail due to the rotation of the Sun over the 4.5 hours of this sequence. The other 39 images were stacked with Darken blend mode and masked to reveal just the disk of Mercury.
Transit of Mercury 2016 #3 (Egress)
The May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury across the Sun, in a frame captured near the moment of third contact with the disk of Mercury nearly tangent to the Sun’s limb. The wobbly seeing produces a minor “black-drop” effect. My location in British Columbia and low horizon cloud prevented me from capturing the early portion of the transit. My sequence of shots started about an hour before mid-transit with the Sun in the clear free of clouds but still fairly low and subject to poor seeing conditions. This is with the 130mm Astro-Physics refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm at f/12, and with the Canon 60Da at ISO 100 for 1/250th second exposure through a Kendrick solar filter. Shot from the parking lot of the Alpine Motel in Kamloops, BC, a location forced by the need to escape clouds in Alberta and south-eastern BC on eclipse morning.
Transit of Mercury 2016 #3 (Egress)
The May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury across the Sun, in a frame captured near the moment of third contact with the disk of Mercury nearly tangent to the Sun’s limb. The wobbly seeing produces a minor “black-drop” effect. My location in British Columbia and low horizon cloud prevented me from capturing the early portion of the transit. My sequence of shots started about an hour before mid-transit with the Sun in the clear free of clouds but still fairly low and subject to poor seeing conditions. This is with the 130mm Astro-Physics refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm at f/12, and with the Canon 60Da at ISO 100 for 1/250th second exposure through a Kendrick solar filter. Shot from the parking lot of the Alpine Motel in Kamloops, BC, a location forced by the need to escape clouds in Alberta and south-eastern BC on eclipse morning.
Transit of Mercury 2016 #2 (Between Mid & Egress)
The May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury across the Sun, in a frame captured halfway between mid-transit and egress with Mercury three-quarters of the way across the solar disk, and under the best seeing conditions of the morning. My location in British Columbia and low horizon cloud prevented me from capturing the early portion of the transit. My sequence of shots started about an hour before mid-transit with the Sun in the clear free of clouds but still fairly low and subject to poor seeing conditions. This is with the 130mm Astro-Physics refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm at f/12, and with the Canon 60Da at ISO 100 for 1/250th second exposure through a Kendrick solar filter. Shot from the parking lot of the Alpine Motel in Kamloops, BC, a location forced by the need to escape clouds in Alberta and south-eastern BC on eclipse morning.
Transit of Mercury 2016 #2 (Between Mid & Egress)
The May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury across the Sun, in a frame captured halfway between mid-transit and egress with Mercury three-quarters of the way across the solar disk, and under the best seeing conditions of the morning. My location in British Columbia and low horizon cloud prevented me from capturing the early portion of the transit. My sequence of shots started about an hour before mid-transit with the Sun in the clear free of clouds but still fairly low and subject to poor seeing conditions. This is with the 130mm Astro-Physics refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm at f/12, and with the Canon 60Da at ISO 100 for 1/250th second exposure through a Kendrick solar filter. Shot from the parking lot of the Alpine Motel in Kamloops, BC, a location forced by the need to escape clouds in Alberta and south-eastern BC on eclipse morning.
Transit of Mercury 2016 #1 (Mid-Transit)
The May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury across the Sun, in a frame captured at mid-transit with Mercury halfway across the solar disk. My location in British Columbia and low horizon cloud prevented me from capturing the early portion of the transit. My sequence of shots started about an hour before mid-transit with the Sun in the clear free of clouds but still fairly low and subject to poor seeing conditions. This is with the 130mm Astro-Physics refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm at f/12, and with the Canon 60Da at ISO 100 for 1/250th second exposure through a Kendrick solar filter. Shot from the parking lot of the Alpine Motel in Kamloops, BC, a location forced by the need to escape clouds in Alberta and south-eastern BC on eclipse morning.
Transit of Mercury 2016 #1 (Mid-Transit)
The May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury across the Sun, in a frame captured at mid-transit with Mercury halfway across the solar disk. My location in British Columbia and low horizon cloud prevented me from capturing the early portion of the transit. My sequence of shots started about an hour before mid-transit with the Sun in the clear free of clouds but still fairly low and subject to poor seeing conditions. This is with the 130mm Astro-Physics refractor with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of 1560mm at f/12, and with the Canon 60Da at ISO 100 for 1/250th second exposure through a Kendrick solar filter. Shot from the parking lot of the Alpine Motel in Kamloops, BC, a location forced by the need to escape clouds in Alberta and south-eastern BC on eclipse morning.
The May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury taken about 45 minutes after sunrise, as the Sun emerged from low horizon cloud. Taken from Kamloops, British Columbia, where the transit was well underway at sunrise. Mercury appears as the circular dot at lower left, with a sunpot group above centre. I shot this with the 130mm Astro-Physics refractor at f/6 prime focus with the Canon 60Da camera at ISO 100. Shot through a Kendrick white light solar filter.
The May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury taken about 45 minutes after sunrise, as the Sun emerged from low horizon cloud. Taken from Kamloops, British Columbia, where the transit was well underway at sunrise. Mercury appears as the circular dot at lower left, with a sunpot group above centre. I shot this with the 130mm Astro-Physics refractor at f/6 prime focus with the Canon 60Da camera at ISO 100. Shot through a Kendrick white light solar filter.
Transit of Mercury near Sunrise
The May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury taken about half an hour after sunrise, as the Sun emerged from low horizon cloud. Taken from Kamloops, British Columbia, where the transit was well underway at sunrise. Mercury appears as the circular dot at lower left, with a sunpot group above centre. I shot this with the 130mm Astro-Physics refractor at f/6 prime focus with the Canon 60Da camera at ISO 100. Shot through a Kendrick white light solar filter. The low atltitude added much of the yellow colouration.
Transit of Mercury near Sunrise
The May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury taken about half an hour after sunrise, as the Sun emerged from low horizon cloud. Taken from Kamloops, British Columbia, where the transit was well underway at sunrise. Mercury appears as the circular dot at lower left, with a sunpot group above centre. I shot this with the 130mm Astro-Physics refractor at f/6 prime focus with the Canon 60Da camera at ISO 100. Shot through a Kendrick white light solar filter. The low atltitude added much of the yellow colouration.
Transit of Venus (June 5, 2012)
The June 5, 2012 transit of Venus, taken from southern Alberta through thickening clouds, without any filter, for 1/8000s at ISO 100 with the Canon 60Da and 80mm A&M apo refractor at f/6, for 480mm focal length. The time from setup to shooting was minimal, as I chased into a clear hole in the clouds northeast of Calgary and pulled over on the highway to see and shoot the transit. Clouds moved in again rapidly, preventing a clear shot through a solar filter.
Transit of Venus (June 5, 2012)
The June 5, 2012 transit of Venus, taken from southern Alberta through thickening clouds, without any filter, for 1/8000s at ISO 100 with the Canon 60Da and 80mm A&M apo refractor at f/6, for 480mm focal length. The time from setup to shooting was minimal, as I chased into a clear hole in the clouds northeast of Calgary and pulled over on the highway to see and shoot the transit. Clouds moved in again rapidly, preventing a clear shot through a solar filter.
Transit of Venus (June 5, 2012)
The June 5, 2012 transit of Venus, taken from southern Alberta through thickening clouds, without any filter, for 1/8000s at ISO 100 with the Canon 60Da and 80mm A&M apo refractor at f/6, for 480mm focal length. The time from setup to shooting was minimal, as I chased into a clear hole in the clouds northeast of Calgary and pulled over on the highway to see and shoot the transit. Clouds moved in again rapidly, preventing a clear shot through a solar filter.
Transit of Venus (June 5, 2012)
The June 5, 2012 transit of Venus, taken from southern Alberta through thickening clouds, without any filter, for 1/8000s at ISO 100 with the Canon 60Da and 80mm A&M apo refractor at f/6, for 480mm focal length. The time from setup to shooting was minimal, as I chased into a clear hole in the clouds northeast of Calgary and pulled over on the highway to see and shoot the transit. Clouds moved in again rapidly, preventing a clear shot through a solar filter.
Transit of Venus (June 5, 2012)
The June 5, 2012 transit of Venus, taken from southern Alberta through thickening clouds, without any filter, for 1/8000s at ISO 100 with the Canon 60Da and 80mm A&M apo refractor at f/6, for 480mm focal length. The time from setup to shooting was minimal, as I chased into a clear hole in the clouds northeast of Calgary and pulled over on the highway to see and shoot the transit. Clouds moved in again rapidly, preventing a clear shot through a solar filter.