NGC 6426 is a small dim globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus. It is one of the 150 or so globular clusters that orbit the Milky Way galaxy.
![(NGC 6426) [C:60x60s]](https://ptobservatory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/lvl_crv_ddp_NGC-6426.jpg)
(NGC 6426) [C:60x60s]
Chart generated with Cartes du Ciel
Cloud cover on the morning of the 9th prevented me from catching Mercury anywhere near first or second contact during its May 2016 transit. Ultimately, the clouds started to break up about two hours into the transit. I manually started the image capture as holes in the clouds revealed the Sun but once the clouds thinned significantly, I started taking 60 second captures automatically every 5 minutes. Very few of the captures were totally free of clouds, but several had only very thin clouds visibly moving across the field of view. Unfortunately, clouds moved back in during the last 10-15 minutes of the transit preventing any images near third or fourth contact as the planet left the solar disk
This image was taken at 1011(L) just 14 minutes after mid-transit. It is the best 178 frames (20%) of the 60 second capture. The image was taken through my double stacked 60mm Hydrogen-Alpha telescope using a Point Grey Flea 3 machine vision camera.
Mercury in transit.
Mercury is the perfectly round black spot just below and left of the center of the solar disk. Other features visible are filaments (dark streaks) and plages (bright areas).
 Typical cloud coverage during the transit. |
 Last image before the clouds closed in. |
I am still working on additional images with the intent of making a composite showing the movement of Mercury across the Sun.
While doing a dry-run yesterday for today’s Mercury transit I captured several images of the Sun. This image is the sharpest 86 frames of a 60 second video stream.
The dark features are filaments and the bright features are plages.
Right now I am processing the imagery from the transit. Watch this space.
Although there was no forecast for clear skies last night, it did clear up late and I got a short chance to try Saturn with the x2 Barlow.
It was obvious that the focus was not close, but I was able to check the full capture process again. I think I had the gain adjusted too high during capture so that will be the focus of the next test. Clouds closed in fairly quickly so I was not able to do any testing other than capture.