For pictures of the transits of Mercury in 2003 and 2016 click here.
 |
Mercury is a very difficult subject because it never rises very high in the sky after dark. This image was taken 54 minutes after sunset when Mercury was at an altitude of only 8.5 degrees. It is not a good image, but at least the phase can be seen. The image was taken on 30th March 2004, one day after Mercury was at maximum eastern elongation, with my ETX125 and X2 teleadaptor and ToUcam. |
 |
Mercury reached eastern elongation on 16th February 2013 and this was a particularly favourable elongation for observers in the northern hemisphere. The western horizon is obscured from my observatory but I managed to image Mercury during daylight, using an infrared filter to block the blue light from the sky. (And my technology has improved a lot in the nine years since the first picture was taken.) This picture was taken only 20 minutes before sunset and is better than any of the others I took earlier in the afternoon. The phase was identical at 37% illumination in these two pictures. When this picture was taken, Mercury was 129 million kilometres (0.86 AU) away and subtended an angle of 7 arc-seconds. Its altitude in the sky was 17½°. Date and Time: 19th February 2013 17:04 UT. Camera: DMK 21AF04. Telescope: LX200 at prime focus with IR-pass filter (λ>685 nm). Capture: ICCapture. Exposure 1/436", gain 675, 1706 frames. Processing: RegiStax. 150 frames stacked. Wavelets 1 = 20, 2 = 10, PhotoImpact. Contrast 20, brightness -40. |
 |
Another good easterly elongation of Mercury occurred on 12th June 2013. This picture was taken 8 days earlier on the 4th. Theoreticly the phase is 54% illuminated, so it looks very like a miniature first-quarter Moon. Mercury was 145 million kilometres (0.97 AU) away and subtended an angle of 6 arc-seconds. Its altitude in the sky was 36¾°. The picture was taken about 2½ hours before sunset. At this elongation, Mercury is moving towards the Earth and a few days later will have looked very similar to the picture above. Date and Time: 4th June 2013 17:45 UT. Camera: DMK 21AF04. Telescope: LX200 at prime focus with IR-pass filter (λ>685 nm). Capture: ICCapture. Exposure 1/183", gain 507, 1800 frames. Processing: RegiStax6. 150 frames stacked. Gaussian wavelets Scheme 3, dering dark side 290 PhotoImpact. Background converted to black. |
 |
There are not many opportunities to see Mercury. Here it is in conjunction with Venus in a brief spell clear almost to the horizon. (To see which is which, move your mouse over the picture.) It is way out of range from my observatory, so this picture was taken from my front drive, across a busy road and dodging a street lamp (the house is painted white). The picture was taken, 72 minutes after sunset, with my Cannon 1000D DSLR camera fitted with an SLR zoom lens operating at 85 mm. Mercury was at an altitude of 5° 46'. Two days later the pair were joined by the Moon. Date and Time: 12th April 2010 20:06 UT Camera: Cannon 1000D Telescope: 85mm SLR lens at f5.6 Processing: PhotoImpact. Contrast 25, Brightness 25. |
 |
And here is Mercury again this time with Jupiter in the evening sky. (Move your mouse pointer over the image to see which is which.) The solar system's smallest and the largest planets seen together. This was a good opportunity to see Mercury. Not only was it near to eastern elongation, but at this time of the year the ecliptic is at its maximum inclination to the horizon, so Mercury was particularly high in the sky. At the time it was at an altitude of 10° 25' and Jupiter was at only 6° 7'. Mercury was 152 million kilometres and Jupiter was 884 million kilometres away. The Messenger spacecraft had entered orbit around Mercury only a few hours before. Date and Time: 18th March 2011 19:43 UT Camera: Cannon 1000D Telescope: EF70-300mm IS USM lens at 90 mm Exposure: 1/25th sec at f4.5, ISO 400 Processing: PhotoImpact. Contrast 60, Brightness 60. |
|
A triple conjunction of Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter occurred in May 2013. Move your mouse pointer over the image to see which is which. The picture was taken at 21:06 UT (an hour after sunset) on 26 May 2013 with a Cannon 1000D DSLR camera fitted with an 150mm lens, exposure 1/50" at f/5 and ISO 1600. The picture was enhanced by raising the contrast to 40, and brightness to 20 in PhotoImpact. After reduction to a suitable size, the contrast and brightness were increased again slightly to compensate for the loss on reduction. |