Mercury Transit - Brisbane

[Dennis]

Well, was the glass half full, or was it half empty? At the end of an uncertain session, I decided it was half full – I had at least managed to grab a few images in between downpours, winds that blew my hutch over and almost continuous cloud cover.

The ‘scope covers were on and off as I played hide and seek with the showers, followed a game of by peek-a-boo with the clouds.

The Sun finally cleared the tree line around 7:30am, but rain soon set in so I waited, and waited, in the hope that it would clear. During the very few clear spells, I rattled of perhaps half a dozen avi’s that were generally less than 60 seconds long, due to fast moving clouds from the south. The Pentax was used to grab stills whenever I remembered.

Towards the end, it was agonising seeing Mercury get so close to the limb. I had everything in focus, ready to go, just hoping for a 10 second clear spell but alas, 100% cloud cover prevailed for those crucial few seconds.

At the end of the day, I decided to be content with what I had managed to capture, given the appalling conditions, rather than regret what I had missed.

Cheers

Dennis.

[[1ponders]]

:clap:

Yep it was frustrating Dennis, but you've definately made the most of it. Terrific shots mate :thumbsup:

[matt]

Well done Dennis.

At least you managed to capture some of it:thumbsup:

[iceman]

Wow awesome stuff Dennis, great to finally see a shot of your setup.

I was hoping you'd get clear skies, because I knew you'd produce some great work. Nice to see you didn't disappoint ;)

Probably not what you hoped, but better than what you expected given the forecast :) Also, your article didn't mention the UMBRELLA! :)

[h0ughy]

wonderful work Dennis! the scope coat was on again Eh!! tops stuff

[gbeal]

Nice shots Dennis, glad you were able to see what you did.
Same here, I had great hopes of shooting every angle etc, but with heavy rain for most of the morning, I knew I would be lucky to just "see" it. The rain slowed, and the showers allowed a few fine spells in between, albeit short.
I didn't bother with the computer in and out, as the scope/mount combo was enough.
Given the reports from others (both in NZ and Ozzie) were lucky to get what we did. I actually took the time to just "view" it with an eyepiece, lovely.
Gary

[Mick]

Awesome photos. :)

[John K]

Hi Dennis,

Extremely nice images. Looks like you had a bit of fun as well playing with the weather so well done mate.

John.

[stephenmcnelley]

Wow, amazing picks, lovely.

[ving]

great pics dennis :thumbsup:

seen some great ones today... almost like being there.
only 13 years to go before the next one :(

[h0ughy]

you travelling overseas for the next one ving, try 13 november 2032 on for size to view from here again;)

[Robert_T]

Some quality pics there Dennis that do as much to highlight your patience and persistance as your obvious skill... I didn't think anyone in Brisbane would see anything so well done:thumbsup:

cheers,

[Dennis]

Here’s a composite image from a 30 sec avi. I stacked the best 20 Mercury frames and then took that Mercury image and copied/pasted it into a single frame from the same avi that showed a hint of the surface granulation.

During the stacking process, the granulation is unfortunately “lost’ due to the wild seeing conditions, so this was the only method I could think of, to provide a glimpse of the surface granulation.

Cheers

Dennis

[ving]

yup, sure am...
:rolleyes:
ok nearly 30 years...

[Sausageman]

Hi Dennis,
Great shots.
I took the telescope to work, set it up at 5am outside the hangar and, yep, clouds.
Finally at 6:30 the clouds broke up, and we had on and off viewing for 2 hours.
I had about 40 people stop and have a look.
Erik looked after the tracking, while I experimented with different filters and eyepieces. I was amazed at the difference the filters made to the clarity.
Guess what? I got halfway to work, and realised I had left the camera behind.

I was hoping to get some shots of my own today.

It was a great mornings viewing though. Can't wait for the next Venus transit and the Solar eclipse in 2012.

Mike

[Striker]

Wow, amazing shots Dennis.

great stuff mate.

[RB]

Congratulations Dennis in capturing a magnificent collection of images and skillfully processing them to bring out their best.

I've been looking forward to seeing what you would produce and you haven't disappointed us.

:clap:

[Dennis]

Hello,

Here is another composite image to show a spectrum of details that were not available during a single avi process through Registax.

A 90 frame avi from 10:07am was processed in Registax, creating a 20 stack image of Mercury near the limb, approaching 3rd contact. Mercury was used as the alignment reference. The solar granulation was then copied and pasted from a single frame in a separate avi taken at 08:29am, where there was a hint of surface granulation visible. The colour was then added using Corel Photo Paint 12.

Cheers

Dennis

[matt]

You're a clever little trickster...

All that cutting... pasting.... colouring.

Can you add an image of me flying the Millennium Falcon thru the sun?:D

[h0ughy]

Mate what a legend you are Dennis. mind you that DMK thingy od mikes looked good to grab images with, I don't even know how to use that toucam I bought from striker yet, I haven't had time to play. Tell you what I am having second thoughts of selling the Pentax now, it came in so handy for my shots, when there is a memory card in it(mike or RB can fill in the details);) :lol:

[alan meehan]

very good collection of photos dennis 1st prize

[RB]

Re: Mercury transit - in glorious technicolour!

Dennis once again, Magnificent work my friend !!!!

Thank you for broadening our experience of this great event.

[sheeny]

Wow, Dennis! :eyepop: Great shots!

Love your work!

Al.

[iceman]

Nice work Dennis, I knew you'd pull out something brilliant.

[h0ughy]

you should see the tripod under that scope coat:eyepop: , that keeps everything in line:P . Like a scotsmans kilt really............:whistle: that must be the secret to his success;)

[Dennis]

Hmm, I did mention a parasol though.........

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=14399 Msg #9

....."PLEASE have some shelter nearby – a parasol,".....:whistle: :whistle:

Cheers

Dennis