Mercury transit hopes drowned in rain.

On Friday, November 8 2006, the planet Mercury passed directly between the planet Earth and the Sun. This was my first solar transit and I looked to this day with much anticipation. I was prepared, I had the right equipment, my trusty 8" SCT and a white light filter, I had the afternoon off and I was in a location well placed to witness about three of the five hours that Mercury would be visible against the backdrop of the Sun. But it was not meant to be. Heavy rain clouds that were supposed to clear out before noon stuck around well into the evening and ruined my chances of claiming an observation. I had to settle for a seat in front of the computer, watching the Kitt peak observatory internet broadcast of the transit, competing with like minded observers for limited bandwidth and 30 second snippets of video with narratives from famous astronomers. Just before third contact I found out that the SLOOH observatory was hosting a broadcast of the transit on their site. The SLOOH site loaded with much greater speed and I stuck it out there until Mercurys disk slipped off the bright sun into inky space.

The weather was a bust and watching the event over the internet was not immensely exciting but I did get to see part of the transit live, and I now have an 8" solar film filter in my tool box for next time. Venus will transit the sun in 2012, six years from now and only four years from a Mercury repeat performance. In the mean time I want to learn more about Planetary transits and their significance in science and astronomy, and I'll keep my fingers crossed for clear skies.