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Several times each year Mercury passes more or less between the Sun and the Earth - an event known as an inferior conjunction. Due to slight differences in the planes of their orbits, the two planets only rarely line up precisely with the Sun. October 2006 was one such occasion when a perfect alignment occured resulting in Mercury transiting the Sun. In the Las Cruces area, the transit started just after noon and ended just a few minutes after sunset.

I set up in front of Gerald Thomas Hall on the NMSU campus. During the transit, scores of people including a visiting 8th grade class from Gadsden Middle School viewed the transit through the right angle finder attached to my camera.

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Telescope:

Celestron NexStar GPS 11"