Mercury
North is up in these images
2008 images
A comparison between my January 16, 2008 image and one taken by the Messenger spacecraft about 47 hours before.
At left: An image taken with my Celestron 11 on 1-16-2008 at 19:24UT. Mercury was 6.1" in diameter and the central meridian (CM) was 237°. At right: Messenger recorded this image on 1-14-08 at approximately 20:25UT, about 80 minutes after the point of closest approach during its first Mercury flyby.
Besides being taken almost two days apart, due to the different view perspective of the Earth's position in space on the 16th and the position of Messenger when its image was taken on the 14th, the planet appears to show a slightly different phase and CM. Messenger was also somewhat above the Earth's orbital plane at the time of its image, as more of Mercury's north polar region is visible.
Of course the above Messenger image has resolution that's many orders of magnitude greater than my comparatively crude backyard result. This comparison's purpose is mainly to show that the features I've imaged are real.
Click here to link to the higher resolution version on the Messenger website. The main website for the Messenger mission is here: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/index.php
2007 images
An animation of 5 images taken from November 4th to the 17th, showing Mercury's rotational motion and phase change as it approaches and then passes greatest western elongation. Except for a narrow area at the sun-facing limb of the planet in the last two frames, this is the side of Mercury that wasn't imaged by Mariner 10, and so most of these features are not well mapped. That will change as the Messenger spacecraft starts a series of flybys of Mercury in early 2008 and eventually goes into orbit around the planet in 2011. Mercury orbits the Sun in only 88 Earth days, but it rotates slowly---it's own day is just over 58.6 Earth days.
Imaged with an Imaging Source DMK21AF04.AS video camera through an 11" Celestron SCT @ f/18 using an Edmund Optics 780nm Near-IR pass filter.
At left: Mercury on 8-02-07 at 12:23UT. At right: On the following day, 8-03-07 at 12:49UT
5.7" in diameter on 8-02, central meridian of 128°. 5.6" in diameter on 8-03, central meridian of 132°.
Imaged with an Imaging Source DMK21AF04.AS video camera through an 11" Celestron SCT @ f/18 using an Edmund Optics 780nm Near-IR pass filter
Mercury on 7-26-07 at 13:58 UT
6.7 arcseconds in diameter, central meridian 97
Imaged with an Imaging Source DMK21AF04.AS video camera through an 11" Celestron SCT @ f/18 using an Edmund Optics 780nm Near-IR pass filter
Mercury on 5-23-07 at 7:41 pm EST (23:41 UT)
6.6 arcseconds in diameter, central meridian 87.3°
Imaged with an Imaging Source DMK21AF04.AS video camera through an 11" Celestron SCT @ f/15 using an Edmund Optics 780nm Near-IR pass filter