[meteorite-list] OT -- Mercury Transit

From: MexicoDoug <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Nov 9 00:42:47 2006
Message-ID: <002c01c703c1$c4ea2840$497191ac_at_thedawning>

Hello Meteorite friends and acquaintances,

What a wonderful time I've had on my trip to the USA with the local
astronomy club during the planetary syzygy championed by that little
hot-shot of a planet, Mercury. I'd like to share this story...

The ancient messenger Planet swiftly vulcanized the attention of the local
astronomy boys here on my trip to the US of A recovering from post-election
blues and golds. More than a dozen telescopes had their glassy hearts set
upon Mercury who brashly made his appearance right on schedule. It was a
couple of hours after midday ... and prominent Mercury boldly blocked our
Sunlight from his little corner in the heavens through everyone's plossyls.

Slow at first, rowing unfalteringly across the immense Solar ocean with the
precision of a metronome, and teased by a tormenting giant sunspot dwarfing
him to the uninitiated, as well. It reminded me of a refreshing Hurricane
on the scalding solar photosphere and a lone Mariner in a dinghy daring to
do the impossible and savoring the improbable by never looking behind. Not
forty-five minutes had elapsed and my thoughts marveled at the speed of the
relative motion was between these daylight divinities, as Mercury interred
invisibly deeper toward the center of the Sun's disk. Onward, and onward
Mercury sailed his charted course right falling like a cute mole in the
center of golden solar frame...continuing the show westward towards the
Pacific and leaving Hawaiian rainbows in its wake...

Ahhh - Mercury. The most dwarfish of planets, excited me without end as I
imagined that the curious circular object I followed. The Messenger brought
me back to feelings of kindergarten. When the kids put bright light bulbs
in front (or was it behind?) as we babes imagined ourselves as mad-scientist
with work of great importance in Arts and Crafts class. Cobbling away, we'd
trace the silhouettes of our partners; then, the black construction paper
heads we glued on a bright red or green backgrounds with the greatest care.
Those were the days!

Fast-forward from nursery school and kindergarten ... to just a couple of
orbits later. I see Daddy elatedly at work; he dramatically photographed
the spectacular Mercury transit of 1970, like the great Cosmic Hunter
stalking His prey with that peculiar filter and star drive on his gleaming
and lovingly crafted telescope. This was wonderful early bird day in May of
a clear-skied Sunrise. It had begun with a Solar ball of fire upon the
horizon and then in lock-step ascended towards the zenith of the Astronomy
dreams for us all. How I remember Dad's disappearance into the darkroom
that eventful Saturday after the eye-opening events of that early Sun. This
culminated with the familial celebrations and Dad's handing me His beautiful
black and white photographic Mercury masterpiece. My own picture of Mercury
with his kind annotations joined the home hall of fame right next to my
fading silhouette on tattered construction paper still pasted on the dining
room wall. On Monday, I excitedly shared this enlarged enlightenment with
all the big kids in homeroom and we all laughed and laughed about the little
buggers in kindergarten who we smugly imagined were challenged to make heads
or tails out of looking through a telescopic image - compared to all of our
light bulb silhouette kids' eclipses that everyone still remembered almost
vividly.

Great balls of fire! What a great picture of Mercury! Or should I say, the
silhouette of Mercury against a great ball of fire... It didn't matter what
it was. The effect is that which meaningfully mesmerizes. What resounded
in our youthful hearts was a great appreciation we all felt for our place in
the universe. Thanks to Mercury. "Mercury, that little planet, why it's
smaller than a pea! Just look at the Sun! A small star millions of times
BIGGER than Mercury or Earth and it didn't need any explaining to send
excitingly great goose bumps to dare thoughts of insignificance and truths
of the universe. Even a little kid could relate to the immensity of the
Solar system with this photograph, or the lucky view through the telescope.

Oh, today at the Astronomy Club meeting there was the now common selection
of hydrogen alpha and other filters, a couple of bloody red views of the Sun
where Solar flares or prominences were visible to all the lucky onlookers
thanks to the never ending goodwill of the group. Some of these prominences
are even larger than Mercury! And there was the solar storm spot which had
a seemingly spiral profile... Then there were the earthly clouds brushing
across the face of the Sun with little Mercury sometime peaking through, and
sometime all was occulted by the yangs and pangs of clouds and
astronomy...all the time I couldn't help thinking that Dad was beside me and
His vernal spirit hosting the glorious celebration I was lucky to attend
today after a 36 1/2 year sabbatical. It was a grand sight and a grand day.
How my mind now wanders festively together with Dad among the planets
themselves. All the astronomy boys and girls are now home feeling the
child-like wonders and falling asleep to pleasant dreams inspired in our
Solar neighborhood...

Good Night!

Best wishes,
Mercury Transit 2006
and Mercury Transport 1970
Doug



----- Original Message -----
From: <lebofsky_at_lpl.arizona.edu>
To: "Matson, Robert" <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_saic.com>
Cc: <sterling_k_webb_at_sbcglobal.net>; <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 9:27 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT -- Mercury Transit


Hi from Tucson where Global Warming seems to be in action.

We (Astronomy Department, Planetary Sciences Department, and Flandrau
Science Center) had more than 10 telecopes set up (including two 20-inch
scopes). We were able to see all but the last five minutes of the event
(went behind the trees).

However, it was 88 F or 89 F here (too tired to convert to C or K). Five
hours in the Tucson Sun with not a cloud to be seen!

We had several telescopes (including mine) with H-alpha filters and so
were able to see a few sunspots as well as several soiar flares. Oh yes,
and Mercury!

Larry

On Wed, November 8, 2006 2:16 pm, Matson, Robert wrote:
> Hi Sterling,
>
>
> Fortunately, we've got an 8" S-C out with a solar filter
> here at work, so I've been able to follow the progress of the transit just
> fine outdoors. I was just hoping to see the greater detail afforded by a
> "big" scope... --Rob
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sterling_k_webb_at_sbcglobal.net
> [mailto:sterling_k_webb_at_sbcglobal.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 1:05 PM
> To: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
> Cc: tracy latimer; Matson, Robert
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT -- Mercury Transit
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
>
> I suspect overwhelmed servers. I got several
> "Server Not Available" messages. But the rest of
> the sites I tried just rolled over and died. I guess it's nice that more
> people than one might have thought wanted to watch a live celestial event.
> I hope the servers didn't just fail and somebody got
> to see it.
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>
>


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Received on Thu 09 Nov 2006 12:41:53 AM PST