From the AGM held for the first time since Hurricane Ivan, It was decided to start a record of past observations made at our Monthly meetings– this may be helpful in deciding what to look out for in future years! True to form November’s meeting at Pedro Castle on the 26th was cloudy – but a one event this Month is worth a mention to get things started.On November the 8th a rare transit of Mercury occurred, a day time event which was based at Smiths Cove on the Iron shore. Visibly was very good with only some partial cloud cover. Both Mike and I bought telescopes with suitable solar filters – Mike Whiteman also bought his small Coronado PST with H Alpha (Hydrogen) filter. A toy worthy of any on an Astronomers Santa list! The scope showed a large prominence which was not visible in the other scopes. Mercury was in fact a very small object dwarfed by Sunspots.
Here is a photo I took on the day, very poor quality yet quite remarkable what a simple digital camera can do – taken straight through the eyepiece. There is a sunspot visible upper right in the picture. Mercury is hard to find! Can you see it?
Chris
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