UNCP OBSERVATORY

(click here)Deep Sky Pictures from UNCP Observatory

During the transit, Mercury's tiny disk—jet black and perfectly round—will glide slowly across the face of the Sun. Only a speck of the Sun's surface is actually covered, so the Sun remains as dangerous as ever to look at. But with a proper filter and a little imagination, the Transit of Mercury can be a marvelous experience. There are many ways to safely observe the Sun, e.g., through eclipse glasses or by means of a pinhole projector. In this case, nothing beats a telescope equipped with a sun-safe H-alpha filter. H-alpha filters are narrowly tuned to the red glow of solar hydrogen. They reveal the Sun as a boiling inferno, cross-crossed by dark magnetic filaments and peppered with sunspots. Warning: The sight of Mercury navigating this starscape could be mind blowing. Image credit: Larry Koehn

Transit of Mercury	Space.Com	Telescope	Where is the observatory?
Map and driving directions.	Current Weather at the Observatory	StarDate Online	Fayetteville Observer's John Horne
Constellations	Tonight's Sky	Sky Watcher	Sky Calendar
See your size in the universe	Optical Observatories	Other Astronomical Observatories	Sky Chart
Astronomy Sky chart	Startrak site	Starhustler	Navigation
USN Navigation site	Native American Astronomy	MAYA Astronomy	Heavens Above
Heavens Above	National Solar Observatory
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI)	Astronomical Images	Bruce McClure's Astronomy Page	Sounds of Pulsars