6:42 AM MDT. The sun poked through the clouds momentarily, but the clouds were too thick to see Mercury.

The sky was overcast at sunrise. I walked out to the river to see if the clouds would clear, but the sun poked through the clouds for only a few seconds, and then was lost behind the clouds until 8:14 AM Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), which allowed me to get the first photo that shows Mercury traipsing across the surface of the sun. The clouds had various openings in them until 9:00 AM, so I was able to get a photo of the sun through the layer of clouds at 8:59 AM, the mid-point in Mercury's journey across the sun. Then we had overcast skies until late morning, so there is a long time-gap between the photos until I was able to get more shots from 10:59 AM up until 12:15 PM when clouds again covered the sun until after well after the transit of Mercury ended at 12:41 PM.  You can see and animated gif of Mercury's transit made from the photos below at https://photoofthedayetc.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/transit-of-mercury/.

8:14 AM MDT. The sun finally found a hole in the clouds so I could get a shot. Mercury is the dot a 1/3 from the bottom slightly off center. The larger dot is a sun spot.

8:26 AM MDT. The clouds cleared enough for Mercury to show as a more distinct dot.

8:51 AM MDT. Light Cloud cover again.

8:59 AM MDT. Thicker clouds now. This is the mid-point through the transit according to a website on times and locations of the transit of Mercury as seen from Albuquerque.

10:59 AM MDT. There's a large time gap because of the cloud cover. Mercury is now on the far right center of the sun.

11:38 AM MDT. Clear sky where the sun is so Mercury is a very distinct dot on the far center right side of the sun.

12:02 PM MDT.

12:15 PM MDT. Mercury is almost to the edge of the sun. This is the last photo I got before the sun was covered by clouds again. The Transit ended at 12:41 PM MDT, under cloud cover in Albuquerque.

The first test exposure with the lens wide open gave an interesting result. The sunspot is reflected in the octagon.

The last time I photographed the "end of the world" was the Transit of Venus back in June of 2012 (https://photoofthedayetc.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/transit-of-venus/). I had a different camera and a 600mm lens back then, and while I don't have a 600mm lens anymore, I still have the Neutral Density (ND) filters I used to photograph the sun in 2012. Tristan reminded me on Sunday that the Transit of Mercury was occurring on Monday, May 9, 2016, and told me I had to photograph it. I dug around my filter box and found the three NDX8 filters. The problem is the NDX8 filters are 58mm, but my 70-200mm zoom lens takes 67mm filters. I did more digging around in my photo stuff, trying to come up with a way to attach 58mm filters to a lens that takes 67mm filters. Tristan and Laurie were quite entertained, and I was about to Duck Tape the filters to the lens when I remembered I had various sized step-down rings for my macro flash. The solution to the filter problem was to tape a 67mm and a 58mm step down ring back to back and screw the three NDX8 filters on the side with the 58mm threads, and then screw the side with the 67mm threads onto the lens. Since the lens hood for the 70-200mm lens didn't fit with the step-down rings on the lens, I adapted the adjustable lens hood off my Bronica 6X7 to marginally fit on the lens.

Next, I walked out into the mid-day sun and tested various exposures. Then I added a polarizing filter to the stack of filters and did some more tests, including exposures through clouds that were passing under the sun. The results are interesting and I did manage to capture a sunspot during the test exposures.

Stack of filters on my make-shift adapter

Test shot with only NDX8 filters

Bronica lens hood precariously attached to the lens

Test shot with the polarizing filter added to the stack of filters

Test shot with NDX8 and polarizing filters and sun covered by a thin cloud

Test shot with the NDX8 and polarizing filters and sun partially covered by a thicker cloud

A touch of blue

Najar giving Sasha mad-dogs

Slap fight

Double dog dare mad-dogs

The Kimo Theater, old Sears Building and the tallest building in New Mexico, formerly known as the Bank of America Tower, reflected in one of the curved glass windows on the Kress Building on Old Route 66 (Central Ave) in Downtown Albuquerque.

I got these photos through the blinds in the bay windows in the kitchen. I'm not sure if he could see me, but he sensed I was there.

Lola enjoying Techno music on her Bluetooth speaker

Star chandelier in the entrance to the apartments

Residents begin moving into the Imperial building today.  I got access to photograph a sample of the apartments on Friday. There are three floors of apartments that include studio apartments, one bedroom, and two bedroom apartments. One of the apartments in the photo series is a two bedroom apartment designed for handicapped residents.

Hallway

Studio apartment kitchen

Bathroom in the studio apartment

Studio apartment main room

Island kitchen in a one bedroom apartment. There is plenty of light without the lights on.

Bedroom

Bathroom

Kitchen in the handicap accessible apartment. Note the sink is lower.

The bathroom in the handicap accessible apartment has plenty of grab bars.

The vanity is open under the sink for wheelchair access.

Bedroom

The closets in the handicap accessible apartments do not have doors

The shelf and clothes hangers are low for wheelchair access.

Island kitchen in a two bedroom unit with the lights on.

Hallway to the bathroom and two bedrooms.

Bathroom

Bedroom

bedroom

View looking south onto the apartments across Silver Ave.

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Ladybugs having fun in the early morning sun

This iris has the blues

sunny side up

backlit

Austrian Copper finally bloomed. It's taken a real beating from the wind.