Transit of Mercury 2003

The last observation from Central Europe of a full transit was made in the year 1973. At the 7th of Mai 2003 the perfect weather condition made it possible to see this astronomical happening from the early morning time up to the end. But during this time I had the strange feeling that a special gang of blood-suckers called moscitos did wait also 30 years for this seldom event at my place. Mercurys trace und Mercury-disk in comparision with the sun.
The Entrance Left: The first half of Mercury entered at 7:14 am MESZ Right: Mercurys tiny disk entered at 7:16 am completely VIDEO CLIP: Entrance of Mercury Exit of Mercury
With a diameter of 4878 km Mercury reaches in this seldom conjunction in a distance of nearly 90 million km his maximum observation size of 12.1" (arcsec). Remember, one degree has 3600 arcsec. " In comparision: If you regard a one Euro - coin from a distance of ca. 350 meters you have nearly the aquivalent size.
Mercury is passing the sun disk May ask yourself, which picture can bring this over dimensional sun "volcanism" together with the gates of our inner earth. ©2003 by Baader Planetarium This fascinating shot is part of a project of the Baader Planetarium. It was taken by Martin Rietze, M. Riesch and A. Baader with a Zeiss APQ 100/600 SolarSpektrum 0.5 A. For more photos and explanations roll down to the astronomie.de link
The drop phenomena

It seems that mercury will not loose himself from the sun edge. May one reason is the sunlight-bending at the planet surface. By forcing up the contrast in this image, it may was possible to show this known phenomene.
Photos

Left: Halftime (ca. 45° moved on the right side) Middle: Exit( ca. 45° moved on the right side) Right exit ( ca. 20° moved on the right side)
The point near the center is a sun - spot Photos are taken with a Siberia 150mm Newton Reflektor, on Fuji color ASA 400, Bel. 1/500 sec, aquivalent focal distance about 4000mm. Advice: Because of aethetic reasons I deprivated the grey and blue color which is caused by the sun foil.

Thanks to Hans Kraus and my brother Thilo. They supplied me with food and drinks to avoid a heat delirium on this moskito hill in Germerswang. Next mercury transit 2016 !! All eclipses & occultations