“The 9 May 2016 transit of Mercury”

So...it could be that I decided to reproduce here the E-Mail article that I received this morning...
...or it could be that I simply thought that some Members of Sciforums.com might be truly interested in watching an Astronomical event, that they might not have any advance knowledge of...

At any rate, the Event is not far off, so...: http://www.livemint.com/Politics/r2...r-rare-transit-across-suns-face-on-Monda.html

-the ^^above quoted^^ from : http://www.livemint.com/Politics/r2...r-rare-transit-across-suns-face-on-Monda.html

There are many web-sites that will Host/Post Live coverage of the Event - some may require that you "Sign-Up" to view the Event...
Below are Links to a few sites... :
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astr...s/live-webcast-of-may-9th-transit-of-mercury/
http://live.slooh.com/stadium/live/transit-of-mercury-2016
http://www.virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/
http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/cesar/streaming

Any Members that are Truly interested in Astronomical Events may want to follow the Event, 'Virtually', as it happens...so to speak...

 

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Looks like I'm going to need to depend on NASA to see this transit, as it is not visible in Australia.

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I do prefer to see these things directly myself and have been fortunate enough to have viewed a total solar eclipse in the past, and also a transit of Venus, both viewed with shade 10 welding glass. The Venus transit was totally visible and distinguishable with the eye and shade 10's.

 

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I was fortunate and photographed the transit of venus through a 1200 mm focal length refractor telescope I was very excited at the time.
Alex

 

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I didn't have a solar filter big enough for my scope, only big enough for my camera.
I was hoping to do a time lapse over the 7 hour transit.
Alas, a bunch of test shots revealed that, with camera alone, the rez was too low to pick up diminutive Mercury.

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you can cut out a disk of card board to cover the scope and then cut out a hole in the disk to fit the smaller solar filter. fit the disk to your scope. I think you will find this approach works very well.
Alex

 

Yeah. Duh. I'm so used to trying to maximize light capture.