A Battle Against Time and Weather -- Mercury Transits the Sun from Pittsburgh, PA. 2003/5/7

I had less than 5 minutes between sunrise and it all ends. Low clouds hid the sun until 6:27 EDT just before contact III. Still it was quite hazy and I took the photos in a great hurry. Sun altitude was only 2 degrees above horizon! I used an 8" Dob + Baader astrosolar filter + scopetronix 18mm eyepiece/adapter + Nikon 995 camera, set to ISO 400, noise reduction on. They may not be the greatest images, but I'm extremely happy that I made it :-)

6:05 EDT / 10:05 UT: Sky seemed clear, except low clouds at east horizon. Setup 8" Dob at Green Tree, Pittsburgh.

Low clouds before sunrise

6:12 EDT / 10:12 UT: Predicted sunrise. Sun invisible behind clouds.

6:27 EDT / 10:27 UT: Top of sun appeared above low clouds. Found it in scope, adjusted focus.

6:28 EDT / 10:28 UT: First usable photo. Contact III about to started. Horizon is at lower left. The dark shadow at left were clouds. 1/20 second, F2.6, f8.2mm, ISO400.

Mercury transit: First usable photo

6:28 EDT / 10:28 UT: Zoom in. Contact III to start. 1/7 second, F3.5, f16.2mm.

Mercury transit: Zoom in. Contact III to start

6:29 EDT / 10:29 UT: Contact III started. For the following photos horizon is at lower right. 1/33 second, F2.6, f8.2mm.

Mercury transit: Contact III started

Stack of 3 photos

6:30 EDT / 10:30 UT: 1/38 second, F2.6, f8.2mm.

Mercury transit

6:31 EDT / 10:31 UT: Halfway between contact III and IV. Stack of 3 photos. 1/40 second, F2.6, f8.2mm.

Mercury transit: Between contact III and IV

6:33 EDT / 10:33 UT: Not contact IV yet, but sun started to enter some higher clouds.

Clouds coming before contact IV.

Am I the west-most (or closest to the event boundary) person in the world to photograph the event? If you know someone who observed the transit even further west, please let me know! Some photos are used by spaceweather.com .