Mercury and its sodium tail
Taken by Dominique DUCHESNEAU on May 8, 2021 @
Poisy, France
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Camera Used: Unavailable Unavailable
Exposure Time: Unavailable
Aperture: Unavailable
ISO: Unavailable
Date Taken: Unavailable
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Details:
Just after sunset on May 8, 2021 I attempted to photograph the planet Mercury using a Sodium narrowband filter.
The image is quite intriguing. Although it looks like a comet, it is the planet Mercury which seems to eject matter in one direction. Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, has a thin atmospheric layer called exosphere, discovered by the Mariner 10 probe in 1974. This exosphere mainly made up of potassium, sodium is very quickly expelled into space by the solar wind creating a comet-like tail behind the planet.
Several amateurs have already captured this tail using a similar setup giving images like the one presented by Andrea Alessandrini a few days ago.
Instruments used:
Refractor ED80 f/D 7 ; Narrowband filter at 589nm/10nm;
Camera Canon EOS 500D
7 exposures of 1mn at ISO800 processed in Siril software.
Photographer's website:
No URL provided.
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