I accidentally messed up the alignment so spent a few extra minutes finding it manually (the guidescope was below the dome wall so no help there). Only about 30% of my telescope's aperture was not blocked by the wall of the dome.
This is a raw unprocessed picture taken with a Meade LPI. Since it was low on the horizon, the planet was jumping all over the place and focusing was difficult at best. Trying to autostack them was useless. Nevertheless a careful look clearly shows the planet is only a bit more than half illuminated.
I may try to get a better shot on Saturday night if the weather cooperates. I think that this is the most elevation we will see for Mercury this year.
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