Imaging the transit of Mercury

[jambouk]

How are others planning to image the transit of Mercury?

Having a play in the garden this morning, and waiting for clouds to clear, I think I'm going to go for a white light sun, and use my DSLR with a Powermate. I appreciate Mercury will be very small, but hopefully a stack of 10-20 images from throughout the day will allow the path of Mercury to be evident.

I thought about using the ZWO, but I like the idea of a full disc, even thought Mercury will be small, and the relative ease of framing with the DSLR vs the ZWO. I have access to a Quark, but again I have limited experience of these and don't want to be learning how to use it on the day, and I'm not even sure that would be a good technique to use.

James

 

[JB80]

Well there is no real rush as the event will last for hours, I only really have the one mount so will be chopping and changing my Reflector with my Ha scope.

I'm pretty sure that after a while the white light reflector will warm up too much in the Sun and any imaging will likely be terrible so I may just use that at the start a bit. Also with Ha I should be able to get quite a lot of but a full disc will have to be a mosaic I guess. Not sure what I will really do, best get some practice in beforehand.

One thing that has always bothered me with transit events is what is the best way to process the sun behind the moving object.

[PhotoGav]

Good questions! My intention, cloud willing, is to do a white light full disk with DSLR through my EdgeHD 800 with reducer. One shot every minute to create a roughly 30 second timelapse and then use a few key frames to create a still montage.

One issue I have tried to address is how low the Sun will be as Mercury moves off the Sun's disk... Low... and my garden hedge will almost definitely get in the way, so I am trying to arrange an alternative location to set up.

Let's just hope that the weather is kind to us.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I am thinking of using the APM 80mm either in white light mode with the DSLR (and 2.5x PowerMate), or doing the ASI174MM in Ca-K. I might do a dual imaging rig trick and image with the ASI174MM in the SolarMax-II 60.

[Pete Presland]

White light with the ED80 and H/A with the Lunt50mm. Just the weather to contend with  

[David Smith]

Dunno! Would like to do a white light time lapse but that ties up my Evostar for the whole 7 hours and I might want to do Ca-K at some point Could do white light with my old 80mm scope but not keen on that idea as detail will be significantly reduced and it's mount is not great. Will probably want to have a look with the PST and possibly do some H alpha imaging too so I may bolt the PST piggyback on the Evostar, or I could use the 80mm achro mount if it is not doing white light time lapse. Somewhere in there I would like to have an eyepiece to look through as well, phrases about having your cake and eating it spring to mind

So in short, no idea

I have decided I need two more mounts, another laptop and guaranteed sunshine

[JB80]

9 hours ago, David Smith said:

 

So in short, no idea

 

 

Lol, pretty much this.

I think I will just make it up as I go along. I might dust off the dslr for a full disc shot if the sun is setting on a mountain or something though and not through trees but I will have to scout this out the day before for the best position.

[hobsey]

Even though I've had a solar filter and Baader Solar Continuum filter for quite some time, I've actually haven't done any solar imaging or observing but I'm going to use this event to actually have ago, so fingers crossed it stays clear.

I've just this second purchased a new power cord for my SLT mount as I'm going to be using this with the 127mak and canon DSLR.

I may even try and get in closer to mercury and have a session with the qhy5-ii.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

I'm thinking of setting up the scope on top of the kitchen (flat-roof extension). Short exposures should compensate for extra vibration, and most of the time I can leave it to get on with things!