Veteran’s Day dawned with mostly clear skies with only some high wispy clouds to interfere with observing Mercury cross the face of the Sun. Dawn was the operative word since the transit started at 0636(L). We, of course, had to be setup and ready to go well before that. The club had a good turnout with most getting to Valparaiso’s Florida park before sunrise. However, a couple slept in and showed up later during the transit.
- Dean Covey
- James Dubben
- Walter Dunn
- Rob Guillaum
- Dave Halupowski
- Tom Haugh
- Dennis & Marietta Hausch
- Scott Morgan
Here are some of the usual suspects:
 Dean |
 Walter |
 Dennis |
 Scott |
In contrast to the 9 May 2016 transit of Mercury, we had a much larger group of guest observers. In total, we had 47 guests, the majority were members of the Shalimar chapter of the Classical Conversations home school group. They were able to view the Sun/Mercury pair through white light and Hydrogen-Alpha scopes. The Sun continues to be in a very low activity period but there was one very small prominence visible in the H-alpha scopes.
 Viewing through Scott’s white light filtered 10″ Orion. |
 Dennis’ H-alpha scope with a secondary DSLR. |
 One of our guest observers using Dennis’ |
 Tom discussing the transit with the home school leader. |
The high wispy clouds came and went throughout the event and did provide an alternate object to view. For a short time portions of a 22 deg halo were visible along with a sun dog (a parhelion) to the east of the Sun. Fourth contact occurred at 1204(L) and concluded the transit.
 Transit at 1013(L). Mercury above right of center. |
 Transit at 1158(L). Mercury just on right edge above center. |
We would like to thank Marietta Hausch for the event photos, Rob Guillaum for the mug shots and Dennis Hausch for the transit photos.
The next Mercury transit visible here on the panhandle will be in 2032. Hope to see you there.