FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: Mercury transit experience.

["Steven Dodder" <sdodder@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was able to take the day off and observe the event from beginning to end 
from Stone Haven Observatory, south of Maricopa.  I viewed the event in the 
C8 with a Thousand Oaks type II filter and our 6" F/4.5 Dob.  I took 
pictures every 15 minutes with film, alternating telescopes and through both 
telescopes with a digital camera to DVD.  I also took video to DVD every 
half hour or so.  I uploaded a quick, ugly web page of 19 of the best 
digital images to:
http://www.stargazing.net/astroman/merctr06/merctrans11806.html
There's no text, and the images are large, so it may take a while, (hours?) 
to download.  Broadband is recommended.
The video turned out pretty well, from a scientific standpoint, with WWV in 
the background, I got first contact at 19:12:30something, (haven't reduced 
it yet) and fourth contact at 00:13:something.  Each video session was on 
average 2 minutes, with first and fourth contact lasting longer.

I'm having the film images scanned to disk when developed and will put 
together a Powerpoint for show and tell at the next SAC meeting.

I really had a great time doing this and only wish I'd had some others to 
share it with, but since I'd have to interrupt ebery 15 minutes, it wouldn't 
be much fun for others, I'm afraid.

Steve and Rosie Dodder
sdodder@xxxxxxxxxxx
Visit my web site at http://www.stargazing.net/Astroman

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