Mercury and Venus are the only two planets between the Earth and the Sun, so they can transit the Sun, when viewed from the Earth. In this picture we see Mercury in the border of the Sun disc as a small round black spot. It is not a sunspot, but the dark face of Mercury crossing side by side the great solar disc. In this image we can also see a sunspot at upper left side. Mercury has a quite small apparent diameter because it is further than Venus and it is also smaller in size.

The image was taken using a Nikon CoolPix 880 camera through a 10-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain Meade telescope and a Thousand Oaks Type 2+ Solar Filter. It was taken from Monterrey, Mexico by José E. García Batarse, an astronomer that belongs to "Kosmos Scientific de México".

by José E. García Batarse on 2009-05-21 18:38:33 [Original Size] - [Next Image] - [Author's gallery]