Mercury from Preston

[Montana]

I woke to clear blue sky (as the forecast said - wall to wall blue sky all day) and in true form by 8am it was total cloud. On Sat24 it showed everywhere north of me was complete blue sky. I sat on the floor and was about to weep when I heard a ping on the computer and the hubby shouted for me to come quick. There was an email from Stu (Carbon60 from the Solarchat forum) saying he could see the weather was bad here and would I like to come to his house in Preston. I then nearly wept again and screamed Yes! I'm on my way!!!!

What is so wonderful about astronomy forums is the complete generosity and kindness of the members. 

 

We arrived and set up in his back garden, I was in a bit of flap but once set up and calm it was magical. We all eagerly awaited first contact. Calsky predicted 11:12 25.6seconds for first contact, I yelped I could see it and the hubby announced the time and it was a full 40 seconds before the prediction which we couldn't understand and the hubby couldn't see it on the CaK PST. I found out why last night, it came in directly over a prom.

 

090516_111207 Mercury first contact by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

 

I then started taking a short animation of it popping over the limb but I haven't done that yet. Then took some full discs at certain intervals across the disc. Here are the first two, for full fine details click the link to Flickr (it's worth it).

 

2016-05-09 11:17UT Mercury 1st FD by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

 

B&W https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexandra4/26314353973/sizes/k/

 

2016-05-09 11:36UT Mercury 2nd FD by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

 

B&W https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexandra4/26825208632/sizes/k/

 

At 5pm we left, raced home and set up just in time to catch the very last glimpses of Mercury leaving the disc, unfortunately the cloud was so thick I could only just see it.

 

All in all a fabulous day, but the most memorable was seeing Mercury through the eyepiece with my own eyes

 

Alexandra

[Davey-T]

Lovely images Alexandra, glad you had a good day, started out cloudy here with gaps ended up cloudy and no gaps before it was half way, still got some nice shots before it disappeared.

Dave

[Pete Presland]

Love it!!!! What astronomy should be about, so good to share this event. Whether its with other people or through forums like SGL.

you have a fabulous set of images as well.  Did Mercury cover the.prom on its way in?

[xtreemchaos]

great set Alexandra , amazing detail mate.well done.thanks  charl.

[Space Cowboy]

Well worth the journey up the M6 Alexandra! 

[laudropb]

Lovely set of images.

[David Smith]

Great set of images, glad you had a good day. Was thinking of you when the clouds arrived here as you're usually stuck under a cloud (or two).

[Montana]

Thanks guys, Cheshire always seems to get the cloud whether it be from north south east or west

Bunnygod, Mercury came in at an angle and just clipped that edge of the prom as you see in the picture.

I now need to catch up on everyone's great captures and tales of the day.

Alexandra

[Moonshane]

The first shot is so cool!

[Scooot]

Truly great images. I enjoyed roaming around the zoom view on flicr.

[DRT]

Lovely images, Alexandra.

I watched the first and second contact through my Quark and it was lovely to watch the black disk drift across the base of that prom and through the chromosphere. Well done for capturing that

[paulastro]

Oh Alexandra, what a lovely heart-warming story, I almost wept myself when I read it.  How fantastic, I've got a big smile on my face as I write this. .  On a more selfish theme, it means the rest of us got to see your fabulously detailed pictures which we would have been deprived of if Stu  hadn't come to the rescue.  So, three cheers for Stu, .

[Drop Of Sun]

Awesome pics, Alexandra! Super Stu!

The eyepiece view was really something, it wowed me even more than I was expecting. Both in white light and h-a. Well done catching the funky bit where is passed in front of the prom. Not many proms about and it went right over one!

[spaceboy]

Result!!!!!

I manage to catch Mercury on the limb in white light but a heavy haze and fleeting clouds meant the views in the LS60 were too dark to see Mercury brush past the prom. Glad to see someone got some great images out of the event