across the Sun’s face tomorrow, Veteran’s Day, beginning at sunrise. Unfortunately the event will be well underway when the Sun appears over the rim of Adobe Mesa to the east at around 7:45 am MST, so I will only be able to observe and photograph the last 3.5 hrs of the approximately 5.5 hour slow motion event. I will shoot images with my DSLR through a solar filter mounted on a 400 mm lens, while visually observing the event through the TeleVue Pronto refractor, also outfitted with a solar filter.
There may even be some local residents stopping by for the daytime “star party” as I made the Castle Valley Comments column in the Moab Times-Independent newspaper!
Solar filters are fitted to the front of my small refractor (front) and my Canon DSLR (rear).
Image courtesy Fred Espanek: http://eclipsewise.com/oh/tm2019.html
Friendly reminder and warning: Do NOT look at the Sun through an optical instrument or naked eye without appropriate precautions and certified solar filters.
Learn more here about this interesting event: Don’t Miss Monday’s Rare Transit of Mercury
UPDATE: Weather forecast is clear and sunny tomorrow. Unfortunately, due to low solar activity during the current solar minimum, there are no sunspots on the surface of the Sun: spaceweather.com These would have added a nice compositional element to an image along with the tiny round silhouette of Mercury.
The spotless Sun setting below Porcupine Rim on the eve of the transit.