Transit of Mercury 2006

To view a time-lapse version of the complete transit on QuickTime video, click here (2.76 MB, 26 seconds)

Watch the susnpot groups carefully and you'll actually be able to detect slight
rotation of the sun over the course of the 5 hour transit.

The Details
Object	The Transit of Mercury 2006
Optics	Takahashi FSQ-106 at f/8
Platform	Astro-Physics 1200 GTO
Camera	SBIG ST-10XME
Filters	Baader AstroSolar Filter ND 5 and Lumicon ND 25 filter
Date	08 November 2006
Location	Mount Wilson Observatory, Mount Wilson CA
Exposure	0.10 second, 1x1 binned
Software	Maxim DL/CCD, Photoshop CS2
Orientation	North Up
Notes	Mercury as it appeared some minutes after Contact II. Active Region 923 can be seen as the large sunspot at a 10:30 o'clock position from Mercury. On the other side of the Sun is Active Region 921 about to rotate out of view. The weather conditions at the Mount Wilson Observatory for the transit of Mercury were superb. Imaging from the 10" Cooke dome, I was able to capture the complete transit. Details of the transit: Contact I 19:12:04 UT Contact II 19:13:57 UT Greatest Transit 21:41:04 (423.4") Contact III 00:08:16 UT Contact IV 00:10:08 UT The above image was taken using the Takahashi 1.6X Extender-Q, Baader AstroSolar Filter ND 5 and a 6nm Tru-Balance Hydrogen-alpha filter in series with a Lumicon Neutral Density ND25 filter.