Transit of Mercury

Last Wendsday Mercury crossed between the sun and the Earth, creating a transit. The sun had a uniform spot that crossed the sun for about 3 hours. The shadow of mercury is not visible against the blinging light of the sun, but with a solar filter, pictures of it can be taken. This is from Dallas, Texas, by an amateur astronomer. Along with the shadow of mercury, you can also see tiny worm like systemic anomolies that are created by the chromosphere. There also several sun spots in the image.

Transit of mercury

Mercury Passed in front of the sun today in what is called a transit of mercury. In an interuption from a school project, my Astronomy teacher ripped me from my computer to observe this astronomical phenomenon. A telescope equipped with a solar filter was aimed at the sun so as not to damage those peoples eyes who decide to observe the sun. In addition to the telescope, a sun spotter was also available for use. The sun spotter makes an image of the sun on a piece of paper so that you can see the dark spots whithout burning a hole in your retina. We watched mercury travel quite a bit of distance across the sun over the course of aproximately a half hour. One fairly large sunspot was also visible during the transit.

V838 Mon: Echoes From the Edge

The Variable star V838 Monocerotis lies near the dege of our galaxy, about 20,000 light years from the sun. A sudden outburst of awesome looking light has made it way more interesting since January 2002. The light us echoing across other dust filled regions and is revealing things previously invisible to us. Hubble Spcace telescope (which on a positive note is going to be repaired) took this image in September. The picture is approx. 14 light years across. Astronomers are begining to think that it is a new binary star, Right next to M50.