[AZ-Observing] Transit from Three Sites
- From: Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx>
- To: AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, evac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 21:25:42 -0500
I began by setting up my 70mm Pronto refractor and H-alpha solar filter at Shaw
Butte Elementary School, where Jenn teaches an astronomy class for her sister's
2nd grade students. Surrounded by school children from other classes, I hogged
the eyepiece to view the ingress. My highly accurate cell phone clock said
that it occurred a couple minutes ahead of the scheduled time of 12:12 p.m.
This makes some sense, as the chromosphere is slightly larger than the
photosphere.
In addition to a sunspot that came around the limb just for us transit-watchers
was a short, detached radial prominence located right where Mercury made its
entry. I did not see Mercury cross the prominence, but the National Solar
Observatory shows it in this incredible movie.
http://www.nso.edu/images/merc_in_prom.mpg
I switched to white light for the school kids to see more easily, and we did
that for an hour or so before heading to Tempe Library, where we joined several
EVAC members, including Mike Collins and Tom Mozdzen. We showed a steady
stream of people the transit through the white-light filter, and the scope was
occupied pretty much full-time thanks to Jenn inviting strangers to the
eyepiece.
Mike, Tom, Jenn, and I then headed to a place with a sufficiently low horizon
to view the egress. We found a suitable site along Mill Avenue just before the
entry to Kiwanis Park. We shuttled back and forth between Tom's white-light
view and my H-alpha view, and watched Mercury exit -- again, a minute or two
later in H-alpha.
Tom
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