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MAST
Small field
(3 arcmin) 50 cm Multi-Application Solar Telescope with 2m focal length
Imagers:
G-Band
H-Alpha
Guider
G-Band Imager
Telescope: MAST
wl: 4305A (10A)
FOV: ~2.5 arcmin
Camera:
PCO Imaging
H-Alpha Imager
Telescope: MAST
wl: 6563A (0.5A)
FOV: ~2.5 arcmin
Camera: Photonmax
Guider Imager
Telescope: MAST
wl: whitelight
FOV: Full Sun
Lens: Sigma 740 mm focal length
Camera: Prosilica
Celestron
20 cm Schmidt- Cassegrain Telescope with 2m focal length
Imagers:
Full Disk
Full Disk Imager
Telescope: Celestron
wl: 6563A (2A)
FOV: Full Sun
Camera: FLI
GONG
8 cm aperture lens with 1m focal length
Imagers:
H-Alpha
Full Disk
Observations of Mercury Transit from Udaipur Solar Observatory:
Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO) has planned to observe the transit of Mercury, the smallest innermost planet of our solar system on May 9, 2016. The transit will begin in the late afternoon at 16:40 hrs local time. Mercury will be seen as a tiny dot passing in front of the Sun. Observations of this rare event have been planned using the ground-based telescopes at USO. The event will be recorded if the weather conditions are favorable at Udaipur, i.e. if there are no clouds.
Live images of mercury transit recorded from USO can be checked at the GONG-webpage which will display full disk images of the Sun obtained from the GONG instrument. In these images, Mercury will be seen transiting the solar disk.
The Multi-Application Solar Telescope (MAST) which is installed on the island in Lake Fateh Sagar will also record the event. MAST takes observations of a small region (1/10th of size of the sun) and therefore will be able to view the Mercury transit in high resolution. The transit of Mercury will continue for about 7 hours, however, the entire transit will not be visible to the observers at Udaipur. We will be able to observe the event for more than one hour duration before the Sun sets. Thus, we will be able to watch the first contact (Ingress Exterior) at 16:40:45.1 and second contact (Ingress Interior) at 16:43: 56.7 local time. It is important to note that Mercury is approximately 1/160th of the apparent size of the Sun.
Live images will be updated on this webpage of the Udaipur Solar Observatory can be seen at the following links: To be added on 9 May 2016
The last Mercury-Transit that was recorded from Udaipur occurred on May 7, 2003. The next transit of Mercury was in November 8, 2006 which could not be observed from Udaipur, as the event occurred before the sunrise. The next transit of Mercury will occur on November 11, 2019 which will not be visible from India. The next possible opportunity to witness the Mercury transit is November 13, 2032.