Mercury Transit with Jet

[Littleguy80]

I may be pushing the limits of the theme with this image. I’m justifying it on the grounds that transits are themselves a demonstration of celestial motion. The Jet adds a sense of motion, although not celestial. Finally, I rarely have anything worth submitting to the imaging challenge so didn’t want to miss this opportunity  

Photo taken with a SkyWatcher Equinox 80, TS Optics Herschel Wedge, 9mm Baader Genuine Ortho and iPhone 8.

A very lucky shot taken from my back garden. The image is the moment as I caught it. Only processing is adjustments to exposure and contrast levels using iOS’s inbuilt editor. I’ve included the video of the full Live Photo too. 

 

Edited November 12, 2019 by Littleguy80

[Carbon Brush]

Great! Love it!

[Chris]

Wow! Is that a jet fighter as well? Excellent capture, well done!

[don4l]

Fantastic. I'm very jealous.

 

[Littleguy80]

30 minutes ago, Lockie said:

Wow! Is that a jet fighter as well? Excellent capture, well done!

Yup. I believe it's from RAF Lakenheath. Best guess is a Typhoon (Eurofighter)

[fireballxl5]

Defo a Typhoon

 

[cotterless45]

Ultimate pic of Mercury in Transit ! Old Nick.

[Paz]

I think you ought to share that pic with the papers or the BBC, I bet there's a good chance they might put it out.

[Littleguy80]

I just found out that it’s made the Sky at Night website  

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/transit-mercury-11-november-2019-pictures/

Edited November 12, 2019 by Littleguy80

[Ender Of Days]

This was mine from the last transit of mercury,

(Mercury at the bottom not very visible in this image)

[Chris]

3 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

I just found out that it’s made the Sky at Night website  

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/transit-mercury-11-november-2019-pictures/

Excellent and rightly so!

[Chris]

3 hours ago, cotterless45 said:

Ultimate pic of Mercury in Transit ! Old Nick.

Freddie was a big lad wasn't he lol 

[Cjg]

Excellent capture, Neil. It certainly is aTyphoon, they are based at RAF Marham, and have been frequent fliers over Norfolk this week.  Saw the transit for about 90 minutes from Seething, was Baltic level cold, but very worthwhile.

[Littleguy80]

17 minutes ago, Cjg said:

Excellent capture, Neil. It certainly is aTyphoon, they are based at RAF Marham, and have been frequent fliers over Norfolk this week.  Saw the transit for about 90 minutes from Seething, was Baltic level cold, but very worthwhile.

Thanks Chris. Good to know it’s from Marham. My original plan had been to go to Seething but with the dodgy forecast, I decided to hit the road to try and find some clear skies. Looked like a good turn out at the obs. 

[wxsatuser]

Wonder what Typhoons are doing at Marham as it's home to 617 flying Lightnings.

Great pic btw.

[MimasDeathStar]

That's a great pic well done. If we could speculate it was an F104 doing the flyover then you'd definitely have the competition won! 

Edited November 16, 2019 by MimasDeathStar

[Littleguy80]

I emailed RAF Marham. It turns out the Typhoon is based at RAF Coningsby. They featured my photo on their twitter feed

 

Edited November 20, 2019 by Littleguy80

[Paz]

If you give them the exact time I bet they could work out who was flying it. We would never be told but it would be cool for the pilot to know.

[Littleguy80]

10 hours ago, Paz said:

If you give them the exact time I bet they could work out who was flying it. We would never be told but it would be cool for the pilot to know.

I gave them the exact time and location so hopefully the pilot knows. I said in my email that I hoped the Typhoon crew would enjoy it. As you say, we’ll never know, but nice to think that’s it may have raised a top gun smile  

Edited November 21, 2019 by Littleguy80

[Alan White]

I hope you have this printed and on your wall.
Each time I look at this and smile.

 

[Littleguy80]

I’ve officially made it into print! 

[Paz]

Well done, I did think  this was publishable from the first time I saw it.

[Littleguy80]

9 hours ago, Paz said:

Well done, I did think  this was publishable from the first time I saw it.

Thanks Paz. I’m glad I listened to the suggestions to send it in  

[Mark at Beaufort]

Great photo Neil and I am glad it made it into print.

[Captain Scarlet]

Absolutely superb. You can guarantee that whoever was flying it will certainly know all about it. If it was me in that jet I’d have it framed and in pride of place on my wall!
 

You’ve not just captured a brilliant image as lots do on this forum, but touched others’ lives as well - difficult to do with astronomy I’ll guess!

Magnus.