The Sun - 9th May 2016 Transit of Mercury

[David Smith]

After much anticipation today was not as good as I hoped but not as bad as I feared weather wise. Woke up to cloud which persisted right up to and through 1st contact. Clouds broke a little just before 2nd contact and were then intermittent throughout the afternoon until around 17:30. After that solid cloud followed by rain which prompted a rather hasty packing-up!

Consequently my image haul is significantly less then I had planned but I am glad to have something to show for it.

White light full disks taken with the DSLR. This first one was a single frame shot in between passing clouds.

These two are the usual stacked images.

White Light close ups taken with QHY5

Ca-K 6Pane FD Mosaic taken at 14:20 UT

Their are some false colour versions of the white light disks on Flickr (link below) and I hope to put them into an animation of sorts when I get chance.

I hope you managed to get a look and thanks for looking.

[Bizibilder]

A very good set of images - just a shame that the weather didn't play ball today.

[xtreemchaos]

great set Dave, no go here mate. nice and sharp images mate.thanks charl.

[David Smith]

Thanks both.

@xtreemchaos what a shame you missed out. Really thought I was going to suffer the same fate based on the forecast but got "lucky" I guess.

[Alan]

Excellent set of images, always nice to get a few in the bag when the weather isn't playing ball.

[Pete Presland]

Excellent stuff Dave, the white lights are particularly pleasing.

[DrRobin]

Great set David, glad the cloud cleared for you.

I had three sessions, still got to process all of them, but the first (1pm) was the best.

Robin

[laudropb]

Lovely set of images David. Sorry the weather was not great for you. Wall to wall sunshine here all day with nice seeing. A bit of a wind which might have proved difficult for imagers. I followed the whole transit. Drew a few sketches and enjoyed my day.

[Davey-T]

Good stuff David my animation never got past 12 frames before the clouds arrived.

Dave

[David Smith]

Thanks all.

@DrRobin Look forward to seeing your images later.

@laudropb Glad you got some good weather. It's usually you who has the clouds!

[bingevader]

Splendid!

[laudropb]

Yes David. It was a total surprise. Looks like it will be a nice clear night too, so I will make the most of it.