FYI, this was a thrill, a great event to observe! My first Mercury transit. I was out early and at 0713 EST, the Sun rose above a tree line on the horse farm I viewed from. At 40x, I could see Mercury black disk shape on the solar limb near 0737 EST, that was 2nd contact of ingress. Temps were near 5C with dew and light fog around, cirrus clouds too. I observed through out the day and viewed Mercury from 40x to 71x. Near 1200 EST, the cirrus clouds started moving away with plenty of blue sky. The last 60 minutes of the Mercury transit, skies provided great views at my location. Near 1302 EST at 71x, I could see Mercury next to the solar limb, soon to depart. By 1304 EST, Mercury no longer visible. I used my flip, cell phone for time checks
Outdoors today, some deer hunters were using their muzzle loaders. I was out in the fields with my hunter's orange on. Two immature eagles were flying around me and my pasture areas, distinct calls and sight. Likely young eagles that have not departed the nesting areas for winter. Various flocks of birds flew across my telescope view too, especially early shortly after Mercury ingress near 0735 EST. I used my 90-mm refractor with white light solar filter, 25-mm plossl and 14-mm eyepieces. The tripod is alt-azimuth with cable, slow motion controls. The Sun is a bit more than 0.5-degree diameter in the field of view and Mercury near 10" angular size. Quite a sight in the telescope view! My eyepieces provided 1.3 and 1.0 degree, true field of views. Even though at times cirrus clouds moved by, the cirrus did not block out my views of the Sun and Mercury. The next Mercury transit viewable in my location will be 07-May, 2049 or nearly 30 years. My stargazing log is all updated.
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