The Parktakes Transit of Mercury Celebration occured at Observatory Park on Veterans Day 11 Nov 2019. Activities were run by the Fairfax County Park Authority staff and the Analemma Society. Mary Blessing had a group of her astronomy & geosystem students come in the morning before the public arrived to help set up and act as additional volunteers.

More than 35 people came to view the tiny speck of Mercury cross the image of the sun using special telescopes to insure eye safety. The main viewing was done with an Analemma Society Coronado solar telescope fitted with a Hydrogen Alpha filter.  George Bradwhaw took photos of third contact (C3) with Mercury leaving the sun. He used a Tamron 150-600mm lens with a Thousand Oaks filter attached to a Canon 70D mounted on a ball head tripod.  Kaushik Nagarkar used both his AstroPhysics Refractor and then used fellow AS member James Nguyen's Stellarview 102 mm aperature using a Nikon d7500 without T-Ring.  Go to Gallery/Astronomical Gallery and look at photos #3, #4, and #5.