This morning Mercury put on a show with a transit of the sun. After much anxiety watching the weather forecast change over the last week, we were able to catch the entire transit with the exception of about 50 minutes when the winds started to pick up and we had some
standing lenticular clouds form directly above us. The transit was visible through the entire US even though it was in progress at sunrise. A group of us spent about 5 hours watching Mercury dance across the face of the Sun. I was able to take a few pictures. Since there was only a small sunspot visible, getting an image in focus was quite a challenge.
Equipment:
1) Meade LX90 8"
2) Thousand Oaks Optical, White Light R-G Solar Filter
3) Nikon D300S ISO200 @ 1/2500
Focusing was achieved by using live view on the camera (zoomed onto a sunspot). Adjust the focus very slowly until you see as much detail as you can of the penumbra (sunspot). The live view has a little lag to it. Take a series of photos and then rinse and repeat. Multiple pictures with multiple attempts at fine tuning the focus will usually result in a couple of shots you can be happy with.
