FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: Mercury, Sun, and Earth Diameters

["Rick Tejera" <saguaroastro@xxxxxxx>]

OK,  look's like my first report got hung up in cyber-purgatory, so I'll
recap & update. 

I didn't even get out the door at work on lunch before I got a "What the
hell are you doing now?", so at least I know my co workers are consistent.
:)

Anyway. Got outside and popped the Baader filters on the 7x35 binos and
began the search right around the time of FC. Noticed the Sunspot near the
ingress area, but quickly figured that it was too big and elongated to be
Mercury. Finally saw it about 5 Arcsec in from the limb. A lot smaller than
I expected. It would fade in and out with the seeing and using averted
vision helped. 

Considering my lungs aren't the best air pumps in the world, I was gratified
to know that my heart is capable of rhythmically jiggling the binos.
Depending on how I was leaning on the lamppost, the sun looked like an EKG
graph at times :). 

Also forgot that staring into the sun will, even on a mild day, make you
HOT.

Anyway after about 1/2 hour I had to get back to work, but noticed Mercury
had moved about 10-15 arc seconds across the disc.

At 1430 on the out of work I took a quick look and noted that Mercury was
now pretty much on the Meridian about 1/3 the up from the south limb. I did
show one of my co workers who was interested to see it. She did think it was
pretty cool even if it was just a teeny dot. (I think the concept of what
that dot was is what intrigued her.) Stole few more looks between 1510-1530
while waiting for school to let out. Got to embarrass my daughter by having
the binos out in her presence amongst her friends. Ah the joys of
parenthood! :)

When I got home I got Polly (the 60mmETX) out and enjoyed a much better view
at 58x. By now Mercury was nearing the western limb about 20 arcsec  or so
from the limb and eventual egress. After making a quick sketch, I attached
the camera. Focusing proved to be the hard part here. I finished off the
roll playing with the focus for each shot. Hopefully at least one will be in
focus, Time will tell.

Anyway, I'll end up missing egress as I don't have a low western horizon and
I have to pick up the embarrassed one at dance right around that time, so
please post your observations, so I may live vicariously through them.

Clear skies 


Rick Tejera 
President 
Editor SACnews
Saguaro Astronomy Club
Phoenix, Arizona
saguaroastro@xxxxxxx
www.saguaroastro.org


-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of saguaroastro@xxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 11:56 AM
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Tom Polakis
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: Mercury, Sun, and Earth Diameters

The question I'll most likely get will be "What the hell are do doing?"

(Although you'd think my co-workers would know by now that it's not uncommon
for me to be outside with binoculars looking straight up)

Rick



---- Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx> wrote: 
> The most common question we will get when we show the Mercury transit to
the public (after "how much did that telescope cost?") will probably be
about the size of the Sun and Mercury.  I have found that one significant
figure is more than enough, and don't use km, even though metric has been
adopted in all other parts of the civilized world.
> 
> Diameters:
> Sun: 900,000 miles
> Mercury: 3000 miles
> Earth: 8000 miles
> 
> 
> During the transit, Mercury is about two-thirds of the way to the Sun.
Placed at the distance of Mercury, the Earth would appear less than three
times as large as the tiny, black dot.
> 
> Tom
> --
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