Mercury Transit of the Sun – May 9, 2016
Can you spot Mercury? In case you missed it there is still about an hour left in today’s celestial event. Today Mercury transits the Sun. The next time this occurs will be in 2019. I did consider setting up the telescope and camera for some close-up shots and even doing a time lapse, however the transit started before sunrise here on the West Coast in California so by the time the sun cleared the horizon, the transit was well under way. Hopefully I’ll have better luck next time in 2019.
None-the-less I had to at least get a few shots for my archives. For this shot I used the Canon 7D Mark II + EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens with the EF 2x Extender III for an effective focal length of 400mm. I also stacked one 10-stop filter and two ND4 neutral density filters in front of my lens and I could still barely look at the sun at f/13. Please always exercise the utmost caution when observing the sun. A split second mistake could lead to instant blindness!
For more information on this event you can check out this NASA Page.
PhotoSnob 