[meteorite-list] OT: Spotting Mercury transit today
From: STUARTATK_at_aol.com <STUARTATK_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:36 2004 Message-ID: <19a.148b26c5.2bea5a84_at_aol.com> --part1_19a.148b26c5.2bea5a84_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Bjorn, Happy to report that the Mercury Transit was observed from here in the north of England too :-) Myself and half a dozen other members of my astro society gathered with our telescopes on a big park field down by the river. Didn't look too promising as we were setting-up at 5.30am, and by 6.11, the time the transit started, the whole of the eastern sky was an unbroken slab of grey cloud. Deep sighs all round. But after another hour the cloud started to break, and by 7.45 the Sun finally clawed its way up from behind the wall of grey and we all rushed to our scopes - and yep, exactly as predicted, there was Mercury! Bigger than many of us had expected, and strikingly dark against the solar disc too, a deep, shark-eye black which made it looik like an ink spot against the Sun. We had 4 scopes there, ranging in size from my simple 3" no-drive and altazimuth-mount-only Tasco reflector to "Wow!" 8" Celestrons and Vixens, computer guided and sporting shiny silver solar filters over their ends. The Vixen was connected to a modified webcam, which was in turn connected to a laptop, allowing us to enjoy real-time video of the transit while we sipped our coffee and crunched our ginger cookies. Great fun! Over the course of the next 4 hours we were visited by over 30 people... kids on their way to school pensioners out for a stroll, dog-walkers, even a couple of evidently-suspicious police officers... and had a really fun time just showing people Mercury drifting lazily across the Sun's face. We didn't really do any "science", it was more of an Outreach event - like most of ours are - but it was as enjoyable as ever showing people an amazing sight they would have missed otherwise. At just after 11.32 local time we all went back to our scopes to watch Mercury cross the final few hairs-widths of solar disc, kiss the limb, then edge over it, further and further ... ... ... until finally it was gone. Quite a sad moment - but not as sad as it would have been if that cloud hadn't lifted! Hope others out there had as good a view as we did here in the Lakes. Best wishes, Stu --part1_19a.148b26c5.2bea5a84_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <HTML><FONT FACE=3Darial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=3D2>Hi Bjorn, <BR> <BR>Happy to report that the Mercury Transit was observed from here in the n= orth of England too :-) Myself and half a dozen other members of my astro so= ciety gathered with our telescopes on a big park field down by the river. Di= dn't look too promising as we were setting-up at 5.30am, and by 6.11, the ti= me the transit started, the whole of the eastern sky was an unbroken slab of= grey cloud. Deep sighs all round. But after another hour the cloud started=20= to break, and by 7.45 the Sun finally clawed its way up from behind the wall= of grey and we all rushed to our scopes - and yep, exactly as predicted, th= ere was Mercury! Bigger than many of us had expected, and strikingly dark ag= ainst the solar disc too, a deep, shark-eye black which made it looik like a= n ink spot against the Sun.=20 <BR> <BR>We had 4 scopes there, ranging in size from my simple 3" no-drive and al= tazimuth-mount-only Tasco reflector to "Wow!" 8" Celestrons and Vixens, comp= uter guided and sporting shiny silver solar filters over their ends. The Vix= en was connected to a modified webcam, which was in turn connected to a lapt= op, allowing us to enjoy real-time video of the transit while we sipped our=20= coffee and crunched our ginger cookies. Great fun! <BR> <BR>Over the course of the next 4 hours we were visited by over 30 people...= kids on their way to school pensioners out for a stroll, dog-walkers, even=20= a couple of evidently-suspicious police officers... and had a really fun tim= e just showing people Mercury drifting lazily across the Sun's face. We didn= 't really do any "science", it was more of an Outreach event - like most of=20= ours are - but it was as enjoyable as ever showing people an amazing sight t= hey would have missed otherwise. <BR> <BR>At just after 11.32 local time we all went back to our scopes to watch M= ercury cross the final few hairs-widths of solar disc, kiss the limb, then e= dge over it, further and further ... ... ... until finally it was gone. Quit= e a sad moment - but not as sad as it would have been if that cloud hadn't l= ifted! <BR> <BR>Hope others out there had as good a view as we did here in the Lakes. <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Stu</FONT></HTML> --part1_19a.148b26c5.2bea5a84_boundary-- Received on Wed 07 May 2003 08:48:04 AM PDT |
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