Mercury Transit with TAL200K

Compilation from Mercury Transit with Nikon D7500 on TAL200K. Pictures are converted to DNG and editing using CS4 and "darken". The transit was followed with TAL200K from UT12h35 for one hour. The I switched to my TLAPO80 and SolarMaxIII for further observations.

Mercury Transit in H-Alpha

The Mercury Transit of November 11th, 2019 was observed and photographed in Germany near Dresden. In a small city Klipphausen and with an open view on the church of Sora, the sun was shining the entire day. So, perfect conditions to follow the transit of Mercury in front of the Sun. Together with my Helios collegue, Walter, we set up our equipment : both visual as H-alpha equipment was used.

The transit started at local time 13h35 and the observation ended around 16h00,  as the sun was low above the horizon and some clouds did appeare. When looking now at the pictures the seeing was not that good. However, the view, the observations and the pictures were quit an experience. In May 2016 I already say a Mercury transit. But this time it was more special as I could follow the transit in H-Alpha.
Above and below is a picture sequence of the transit of Mercury. The first row is showing the second contact of Mercury with the limb or edge of the Sun. The next row is the transit over the sun's disk itself.

Mercury Transit November 11th

Some more pictures of the Mercury Transit on November 11th, 2019. Both pictures are taken with Nikon D7500 on TAL200K f/8.5. After converting to DNG format editing done with CS4.

Mercury Transit : First pictures

South-Western Horizon in Klipphausen (Germany)

My first pictures of the Mercury Transit of November 11th 2019 taken in Klipphausen (Germany) are edited. Pictures are taken with H-Alpha SolarMaxIII 70/400 f/5.7 DS BF15 and TAL200K f/8.5.

Moments after second contact

Half-hour after first contact

15 minutes after first contact

Mercury Transit : 100h to go

On November 11th, UT12h35, planet Mercury will be moving "across" the sundisk. For more details see my previous blogpostg.

Openlearn from The Open University

Hopping around to find online astronomy courses I found a website "Openlearn" from The Open University. There objective :

Interested in a new topic and want to dig deeper? Or maybe you're passionate about a subject. Whether it’s a five minute exploration or a 24-hour expedition into learning that you’re after, you’ll find it on OpenLearn for free. OpenLearn is a free learning platform, delivered by The Open University as part of its Royal Charter commitment to support the wellbeing of the community. We're proud to say that it reaches over 6m learners a year.
You will find almost 1,000 free courses, topical and interactive content, videos and online games on OpenLearn. 

Some of the free astronomy courses :

- Astronomy with an online telescoop

- The Big Bang

- Comparing Stars

- The evolving Universe

- Galaxies, stars and planets 

- In the nightsky : Orion

- An introduction to active galaxies

- An introduction to exoplanets

- Microgravity : living in the ISS

- The Moon

- Moon of our Solarsystem

- Motion under gravity

- An overview of active galaxies

- The restless universe

- Scattering and tunneling

- The science of nuclear energy

- The Sun

- Telescopes and spectographs

- What are waves

Beside these free courses there are another 462 articles, videos, lectures,... on astronomy.

See for more information this link. 

ESA Solar Orbiter

After NASA launched its "Parker Solar Probe (PSP)" satellite on August 12 last year, ESA will launch its "Solar Orbiter" satellite in February 2020. Why another satellite to the Sun? There was already Ulysses, Wind, SOHO, Trace, Cluster, Stereo, Hinode, Proba-2, SDO and last year Parker Solar Probe.  Although we already know a lot about how the sun works, we don't understand everything yet. For example, we still do not understand the origin of the high temperatures in the Corona and also not the accelerating mechanism of the plasma and particles, the solar wind, in the Corona. The riddle of the Solar Dynamo also remains: how do magnetic fields arise in and around the Sun and what contributions do the magnetic fields make in the Chromosphere, Corona and beyond in the Heliosphere. The new solar satellite "Solar Orbiter" tries to provide answers to all this.

The Solar Orbiter weighs around 1800 kg (compared to PSP 600 kg) and will take 10 measuring instruments on board, including the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager made in Liège(B). The Solar Orbiter will rotate around the sun in an elliptical orbit and eventually shear around the Sun every 6 months. The orbit always stretches from the Earth to about 42 million km from the Sun and therefore within the orbit of Mercury. In itself this is not a record because the PSP will approach the Sun to an incredible distance of 6.2 million km. By operating at a greater distance, the temperatures to which the Solar Orbiter will be exposed are limited to 600°C compared to 1400°C for the PSP. As a result, photos can be taken during this mission, which is not the case for the PSP. And of course we are already looking forward to it! The Solar Orbiter will change with every approach it's inclination with a maximum of 33 ° compared to the ecliptic. This allows the poles of  Sun to be included in the research.

See also : ESA Websit on Solar Orbiter  and some more background.