The Mercury

Date & Time:	Dec 10 1999, 29:58 JST(+0900)
	Composed 3 images (1/2sec. exposed each)
Optical:	TAKAHASHI 12.5cm(4.9") fluorite refractor with Or6mm eyepiece (f=12300mm, F98.0)
	Auto-guided with GOTO MX-II Equatorial
Camera:	VIXEN VX-1
Film:	Fujicolor Super G Ace 800
Location:	Ooizumi vil., Yamanashi pref.

The closest planet to the sun, the Mercury revolves in 88 days. So the planet appears in west sky in evening and east sky in dawn one after another. We have fairly rare chances to see the Mercury because it comes out in very low elevation angle compared with the Venus; it's considerably difficult to find out the planet snuggling up to the sun in spite of its 0th magnitude in maximum.
If you can find out the Mercury in very low skies by a lucky chance, you'll be able to enjoy the waxing and waning of the Mercury with telescopes with a magnifying power of over 100, this picture shows you the Mercury a little waned in left side. It's comparatively easy to observe the waxing and waning of the Mercury, but fairly difficult to detect the pattern of the surface of Mercury because of its maximum diameter of at most 10 arc seconds or so.

Mercury Transit on Nov 9, 2006

Venus Transit on Jun 6, 2012 (Review)

		Copyright(c) 2000 by Naoyuki Kurita, All rights reserved.
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