Exit of Mercury, 10:24-10:34 UT

A 22 image GIF movie of the planet's exit from the solar disk during 10 minutes, highly compressed. File size 523 KB, may take some time to load. See also the narrow-field version of the same animation.

Mercury is the small round and very dark spot at right which exits the solar disk. The bigger spot at left is a sunspot. South is up and west is to the left.

Exposure Data

Instrument: TMB 4.1" f/6.2 APO
F/stop: 6.2
Exposure: 22 x 10 milliseconds
CCD: SBIG ST-7E
Animation duration: 12:24 - 12:34 MESZ (including 3rd and 4th contact)
Date: May 7, 2003
Location: Niederleis, Lower Austria
Conditions: Some cirrus clouds, guts of wind
Enhancement: Adobe Photoshop 6.0
Notes: 3 filters had to be used to reduce the sun's light to a level acceptable for the CCD: A photographic Thousand Oaks glass filter, a broad band H-alpha filter (normally used for deep-sky observations) and a sheet of rescue blanket (!)