Early morning May 7th some amateur astronomers in Vorarlberg packed their gear to observe the Mercury transit from the Bödele above Dornbirn. We had some beatiful weather, and while there were few visitors, TV and Radio came and we had to do some interviews...

All images of the sun below were taken with a Vixen R-130S newtonian telescope on a Super Polaris mount, with a Nikon Coolpiyx 4500, which was coupled to the scope using a VIxen digital camera adaptor and a Vixen LV12mm eyepiece. I used the very good Baader Astro Solar filter film . Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

Mercury is the small round point to the lower right	The difference in size between sun and mercury was impressive	Closeup image of the lone sunspot near the center of the sun's disc.
On the limb some bright areas could be seen around a sunspot group rotating out of view.	Alois Ortner (left) talking to Robert Seeberger, in the background you can see Alois sun-projection setup	Alois taking some images through a Takahashi FS-102
My Vixen R-130S with a Baader Astro-Solar filter, ready for transit observing. Notice the digital camera adapter in the focuser.

 

All images © Philipp Salzgeber