| Observer: | Tom Campbell |
| Location: | College Station, Texas (Long: 101°56'W Lat: 33°47'N) |
| Telescope: | Zhumell 12" f/5 Dobsonian with 4" off-axis solar filter |
| Eyepieces: | 2" Explore Scientific 70° Erfle - 25mm |
| Seeing: | Somewhat Stable (6/10) |
| Transparency: | Overcast with a few small breaks in the clouds |
| Temperature: | 70s. There was a light to medium breeze. |
Last week, I was getting really excited about today's Mercury transit. I even asked my boss for the day off, so I could set up my telescope in the office parking lot and show my coworkers the transit. The vacation request was granted, but the forecast was iffy. By the time Friday rolled around, all of the weather models were showing thunderstorms for Monday. Reluctantly, I cancelled my vacation. It would be better to be busy at work all day than sit at home watching the rain ruin my chances to see the transit in person.
This morning, the forecasts still hadn't changed. I took a peek outside and was greeted with overcast skies and wet streets from an overnight shower. Shaking my head, I still couldn't get the thought of the transit out of my head. I had seen the Venus transit in 2012, and I really wanted to add Mercury to my list.
Throwing my common sense out the window, I packed my 12" Dob into the back of my CR-V and headed off to work. "Just in case," I told myself.
Whenever I got the chance at work, I would peek out the window and see what the sky conditions were. Overcast. But wait. I could see shadows of the cars in the parking lot. Even though the Sun was behind the cover of clouds, if it could still shine through enough to cast a distinct shadow, surely it was bright enough to see with my telescope, right? I wasn't sure, but I told my boss about my plan and asked her if I could set up my telescope to see if the transit could be viewed.
She graciously agreed, and I practically ran to my car and set it up in record time. I'm so glad I put dolly wheels on the base. Made it so easy to haul the scope from the middle of the parking lot to the sidewalk near the office entrance.
I installed my solar filter, aimed the telescope towards the Sun, and ... "Yes! There it was! Mercury!" Such a tiny thing, but I had been reading so many articles about how small it would be, it looked larger than I had expected. Also, there was a nice, complex sunspot group crossing the Sun, which added even more interest.
Right away, people coming in and out of the building were curious about what I had set up. So I invited them to take a peek. All in all, about 30-40 people took their turn watching the transit. It was slow going, as many times we would have to wait several minutes for a thick cloud to move out of the way so the Sun could even be seen at all.
I ended up viewing from about 9am to 10:30am CDT. After that, the clouds began moving in so thick it became impossible to continue. I put the telescope back in my car before it turned into a rain gauge.
I tried taking some afocal snapshots, but the cloud cover made most of them turn out terrible. I did manage to get a couple of halfway decent shots before my phone battery died (the one preparation I forgot to make).
Afterwards, I sent a copy of this photo to everyone in the company, thanking them for turning out on such short notice. I got several nice email replies, including one from the agency's Deputy Director. He wasn't able to come down and look through the telescope, but thanked me for giving the others an opportunity to view the transit.
I had hoped to take another peek at home on my lunch hour, but the clouds refused to show any more. But I can't complain... I saw a lot more of the transit than I had counted on this morning.