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Mercury 040330 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.

Images of the Transit of Mercury 7th May 2003

Mercury Transit 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.
Mercury in transit 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.
The end of the transit This image was taken at 10:25 UT, just before the end of the transit, with a ToUcam at prime focus of my ETX125.

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