The transit of Mercury 2016.
A Mercury transit only happens about 13 or 14 times per century, so this is the first time I have had an apportunity to photograph it. In Denmark the transit took place from 13:12 to 20:42, and since summer has just arrived the sky was clear and the Sun had no intention of setting before the end of the transit. I was not sure if my cheap 300mm zoom lens was good enough to detect the shadow of Mercury, but it managed just fine. I took a few shots every hour starting from 13:30 and during the peak at 16:57, I did miss the final one at 20:30 because the Sun was hiding below the city skyline. I am very happy about the resutling combined photo which clearly shows the path of Mercury (from left to right) across the Sun as well as a rather large group of Sun spots.
Date: May 9, 2016
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Camera: Canon 6D
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 (at 300mm, f/5.6)
Filter: Baader AstroSolar Filter
Exposure: 1/4000 seconds at ISO 100 (7 images taken 1 hour apart)
Processing: Processed in Photoshop CS6