Mercury Transit of the Sun - 9th November 2006

[Lee]

Total utter muck in Newcastle.... as usual.

[spudrick]

Started here pretty cloudy but sunrise broke through the clouds..
Started singing to myself "Here comes the sun.di di di di...di"
Looked great especially the large sunspot above.
Weather is improving and clearing completely now

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

Got up this morning to yet another typical beautiful sunny Melbourne morning( ) and set the PST up in the backyard just before leaving for work. I put the XW-7 in the scope so I could get a nice closeup and fill the whole view with the Sun. Immediately I could see little Mercury already a fair way inside the Sun, 7:00, a small prominence off to the edge and a sunspot also nearby, about 3 or 4 times Mercury's size. Went inside to see if my wife wanted to have a look, she is a bit stuffed up at the moment with a cold. Eventually I was able to convince her to come outside and have a look.

I am now at work and have the PST set up behind me. I hope to go outside a couple of times to have a look and show it to anyone at work who is interested.

When I went to bed last night I didn't expect to see anything until after 11:30....they said "morning drizzle, clearing to a fine and sunny afternoon for the races".

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

I live a 15 minute walk from Ving's, and like he says there's 95% cloud cover.... and the holes are all in the wrong spot. I was considering throwing the little ETX-60 mit new solar gadget into it's backpack and taking it to work with me for a chance of a viewing later on. I've voted to stay put at home instead and see if I can't set the lappy up and at least capture it if I see some sun before 11:00ish.

Dang!

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Clear as a bell here in Gove NT
Mercury is an impressive sight contrasted against the huge sunspot climbing over the suns limb !

[rmcpb (Rob)]

130% cloud here

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by rmcpb

130% cloud here

Whereabouts up there are you Rob?

[swannies1983 (Dan)]

Hi guys. I'm enjoying the transit here in Adelaide (no clouds at all!) Looks like we are passed mid transit at this stage. Very few sunspots to compare Mercury with apart from a nice couple on the solar limb. Have taken a few projection photos as I don't have a solar filter. Mercury a bit too small to see in these pictures. Makes you realise how good the Venus transit really was!!

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

YAY! I got a 1-minute break through the cloud. The little ETX-60 picked up Mercury beautifully against the background of orange. The current sun spot is huge, and whilst the cloud scrolled across the view prior to clearing I confused it with Mercury. The actual target is substantially smaller than the spot but still obvious nevertheless.

At least I saw it. Now the clouds are back again and look like staying for a while.

[ving (David)]

aarrgghh!
i knew i should have chucked a sickie today!

did you get a picture with the toucam chris?

cloud and more cloud at rockdale (work).

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by ving

aarrgghh!
i knew i should have chucked a sickie today!

did you get a picture with the toucam chris?

cloud and more cloud at rockdale (work).

It's actually threatening to pour David, so I'm a little afraid of setting up the tablet out there. If I'm lucky it'll clear once more before it's over. I just saw it again and Mercury is now about dead centre.

I'll try!

[ving (David)]

gah! i am missing it all!!!!!

good luck chris

[Ric]

It was looking very good for Canberra observers this morning, I would think that everyone would have seen contact 1 & 2.
There are a lot of big patches of cloud around now though, I hope it's not spoiling the party for anyone around this area

Cheers

[spudrick]

Melbourne has turned on the best weather now clear and blue skies horizon to horizon (after a bit of a dismal start)..
Looking great note the 2 fainter spots on the exit limb (wish i had a camera setup )

[Mombat]

Melbourne has indeed turned it on with beautiful blue skies horizon to horizon, and with my final YR 12 exam finished yesterday i have plenty of time to muck around.

I've converted my living room into my own pesonal Solar viewing room with the curtains taped shut around around a pair of binoculars projecting a gorgeous view of the sun onto the floor of the house.

I fell for the sunspot being mercury at first too, i've never had a chance to do this before. I'm going to make sure i see the venus transit in 2012!!

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by spudrick

Melbourne has turned on the best weather now clear and blue skies horizon to horizon (after a bit of a dismal start)..
Looking great note the 2 fainter spots on the exit limb (wish i had a camera setup )

I just hurriedly made a full aperture filter from baader film sandwiched between two sheets of cardboard from Monday nights pizza box taped to my 130mm newt . (Dont try this at home kids )

The large sunspot looks great also

[matt]

about 11am

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

As others have mentioned...clouds and more clouds in Sydney.

I did get up and take the kiddies to the Sydney Observatory...nice set up and presentations except mother nature would not cooperate...

Watched a bit of the transit via a feed from Haiwaii at the observatory...nothing here locally...so sad...sadder still for my kids who I just dropped off at school (they thought they could stay out for the whole thing but with clouds I figured they might as well be in class).

At least I'm taking the whole day off from work!

[Mombat]

A beautiful picture here from SOHO of the transit

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/...24_mdi_igr.gif

[matt]

Some serious solar activity happening.

There have been a few very large "belches" in the last few days. Playing havoc with satellites etc

And this is meant to be a quiet time for the sun!