Mercury Transit

We have added a new section, The Sun Now, that shows images from the ESAC Solar Observatory (Helios) located in Villafranca del Castillo (Spain). Helios is a 9cm Ηα telescope together with a small 10cm refractor installed at ESAC to perform solar observations during the day. The images will be shown in real time (updated every 5 seconds) when available.

The app also shows some of the best images and time-lapse Videos of the The Mercury Transit that occurred on May 9th. and Venus transit in 2006. transit and new .

On Monday, 9th May 2016, Mercury passed across the face of the Sun for the first time since 2006.

Two expeditions were organized to observe this unique event from two distant locations on Earth and acquire images to be transmitted worldwide:

- Cerro Paranal, in the Andes range, Chile, at the European Southern Observatory ESO.
- Madrid, Spain, at the European Space Astronomy Center ESAC.

Observations were made using a Celestron CGEM mount and two telescopes: a Coronado Solarmax II 90, in H-alpha spectral range, and a Bresser AR-102, in white-light spectral range. The images are taken every 30 seconds approximately.

The activity is part of the CESAR programme (Cooperation through Education in Science and Astronomy Research), a joint educational and scientific programme developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Spanish National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA) and the company ISDEFE, conceived as a link between astronomy research and the education community.