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Mercury Transit ...

  • 11-11-2019 2:32pm
    #1
    Hector Savage
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,809 ✭✭✭


    Happening right now , Nov 11, 2019

    Surprised there is no thread on it, I just saw it with some solar filter paper with binocs and took some photos.

    I'll post the photos up later

    Live stream


Comments

  • #2
    tjhook
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 749 ✭✭✭tjhook


    Delighted to get a few images today. I'd the day booked off work on the off-chance there'd be a glimpse.

    Ideally I'd have tuned things to get better detail, but I'm happy to get anything at all between the clouds. Roll on 2032! :)

    495014.jpg


  • #3
    ThunderCat
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,385 ✭✭✭ThunderCat


    Amazing image tjhook. Bet you are glad you made the effort now!
    This image really hits home just how big the Sun is seeing as Mercury is a similar size to our Moon and the distance between Mercury to the Sun is around 58 million kilometres despite the image making it seem like they are on top of one another like with IO and Jupiter for example.


  • #4
    arctictree
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,364 ✭✭✭arctictree


    RTE saying Mercury takes 88 years to orbit the sun. Surly this is a misprint?

    https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2019/1112/1090281-mercury-transit-sun/
    Every 88 years Mercury completes each orbit around the sun, and passes between the Earth and sun every 116 days.


  • #5
    coylemj
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,620 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    arctictree wrote: »
    RTE saying Mercury takes 88 years to orbit the sun. Surly this is a misprint?

    https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2019/1112/1090281-mercury-transit-sun/

    They've corrected it to 88 days.


  • #6
    Hector Savage
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,809 ✭✭✭Hector Savage


    Not as good as your own there tjhook but here was one of my efforts, just using a FF 5d and 400mm lens (handheld)

    495327.jpg


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  • #7
    Hector Savage
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,809 ✭✭✭Hector Savage


    I am seeing a lot of pictures of the transit with Mercury appearing a lot lower in the sun, now I am assuming this is because it was shot from the southern hemisphere?

    Or have I grabbed a sunspot here!! :eek: !
    ?


  • #8
    tjhook
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 749 ✭✭✭tjhook


    Could be rotation of the camera in the lens/telescope? The sun is so far away that its location would no differ greatly no matter where on Earth you are.


  • #9
    Hector Savage
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,809 ✭✭✭Hector Savage


    tjhook wrote: »
    Could be rotation of the camera in the lens/telescope? The sun is so far away that its location would no differ greatly no matter where on Earth you are.

    Damn it!

    https://twitter.com/JPMajor/status/1193975488072601602

    Doesn't look like I got it then, doesn't make sense even taking rotation into account ...


  • #10
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,567 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    transit_of_mercury.png

    https://xkcd.com/2227/ :pac:


  • #11
    murphyme2010
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 228 ✭✭murphyme2010


    Hector Savage wrote: »
    I am seeing a lot of pictures of the transit with Mercury appearing a lot lower in the sun, now I am assuming this is because it was shot from the southern hemisphere?

    Or have I grabbed a sunspot here!! :eek: !
    ?


    You have captured Mercury. The different positions on the images depends on the type of scope used and whether the mount was alt-az or equatorial.


    Here is my own humble offering taken with a smartphone through a refractor on an alt-az mount from Dublin. Mercury is at 3 O'Clock.


    49073680822_e09e35cd9e_z.jpgTransit of Mercury 2019 by Michael Murphy, on Flickr


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  • #12
    coylemj
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,620 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    Hector Savage wrote: »
    I am seeing a lot of pictures of the transit with Mercury appearing a lot lower in the sun, now I am assuming this is because it was shot from the southern hemisphere?

    The relative shift in Mercury's position on the solar disc during a transit based on the observer's location (parallax) is minimial because of Mercury's relative proximity to the Sun.

    It's different with Venus which is closer to the Earth than the Sun. Having oberved a transit of Mercury from the island of St. Helena in 1677, it occurred to astronomer Edmund Halley (of comet fame) that if a transit of Venus was observed from different latitudes, the solar parallax data could be used to calculate the distance to the sun. Hence the multiple expeditions to observe the 1761 and 1769 transits of Venus.


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