Observation by Chris Hooker: Mercury in IR on 7th May 2020

Uploaded by

Chris Hooker

Observer

Chris Hooker

Observed

2020 May 07 - 11:00

Uploaded

2020 May 08 - 21:27

Objects

Mercury

Equipment

254 mmNewtonian
Tele Vue 5x Powermate
ZWO ASI174MM camera
Baader IR-pass filter (685 nm)

Exposure

0.25 msec

Location

Didcot, Oxfordshire

Target name

Mercury

Title

Mercury in IR on 7th May 2020

About this image

Mercury imaged just after superior conjunction, at an elongation of just over 3 degrees from the Sun. The jet stream was very light, but local seeing conditions made the observation difficult. Most of the best data was captured in three brief periods following gusts of breeze, after which the seeing became better, before gradually deteriorating again. The raw data were pre-processed in PIPP and Autostakkert 3, then the best-quality frames were selected by eye. The final image shows a number of bright features that agree fairly well with a blurred Messenger image, although there is still a significant amount of noise present.

Information about the special techniques used to obtain conjunction images can be found in my post of a similar image on 5th June 2018, and more detail is given in Section 7 of the Mercury Observing Guide, which can be downloaded from the Mercury & Venus Section page.

Files associated with this observation

Mercury 07 May 20.png (253.3 kB)

Like this image

Bill Leatherbarrow, Martin Lewis, Steve Knight, Jeremy Shears, Chris Dole, David Swan, Ray Emery, Dr Paul Leyland, Nick Hewitt, Ron Johnson, Andy Wilson, Andrew Dumbleton, Graeme Coates

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