Transit of Mercury, May 2016

[Fermenter]

This was my first time ever pointing my telescope at the Sun.  I ordered a solar filter from Thousand Oaks and used it for the first time that day.  My fiancee and I took our telescope to the neighborhood park, and posted a photo of it set up to the neighborhood FB groups inviting people to come take a look at the event.  I was meeting someone from a photography forum at the park as we were both trying to create photos of the transit.  A few folks from the neighborhood came out and took a look at Mercury's shadow on the Sun, and I got a lot of frames using my Sony α7R II.  I made a couple edits and settled on this one as the best.  Instead of the more white looking sun, I added a warming filter to the image as people seem to expect a bit of yellow ting to the Sun, and the folks who saw both images preferred this one.  I'm rather pleased with my first ever attempt at viewing and imaging the Sun.

 

[Fermenter]

Btw, how do I add these photos to my gallery?  I tried do it as embedded or as an attachment but I don't see a button to add to gallery...

 

Thanks.

[DRT]

Very nice image

I think you need to use the "Create" option in the top left of the screen to create a Gallery...

[Pete Presland]

Excellent image, thank you for reminding me of that event.

[laudropb]

Lovely image of a very enjoyable event.

[Iainp]

Very nice indeed! 

Iain 

[DrRobin]

Nicely caught Charles.

A good idea setting up a public viewing, it gives ordinary people a chance to see something live that they would otherwise only be able to see on TV.  I did a public viewing for the eclipse in March, there was about 30 people there and it was very popular.

Robin

[Fermenter]

Thanks for the kind words everyone.  Having never even observed the Sun before, I was very pleased with the result I got in this image.

 

17 hours ago, DRT said:

Very nice image

I think you need to use the "Create" option in the top left of the screen to create a Gallery...

Thanks for that. I'll be uploading a few of my images today or over the weekend.

 

2 hours ago, DrRobin said:

Nicely caught Charles.

A good idea setting up a public viewing, it gives ordinary people a chance to see something live that they would otherwise only be able to see on TV.  I did a public viewing for the eclipse in March, there was about 30 people there and it was very popular.

Robin

Nice, yeah, after the transit a bunch of people who couldn't make it expressed interest in when I would next set up my telescope for people to take a look.  So I decided that during the Perseids meteor shower would be the perfect time to do so.  We're trying to make the event kid friendly, and thinking that it might be like a kids session at 9, and adults without children around 10:30/11.  I've got another thread about that star party here: