what is to the left of the sun

mercury? Photo taken at 1pm central mountain time. Yesterday.

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The only planet in that position at that time is Mercury. Care to share how you processed this? Interesting.

I'm not an expert on astronomical photography etc., so I may be way off beam here.

However, I would have thought that at the small apertures you were probably using to shoot the sun, then a planet would not show up?

Besides, that looks more like an internal lens reflection to me.

I'm inclined to agree on the reflection. The size of the sphere in question is appears large for Mercury as well. It's more consistent with the scale of Jupiter.

Venus being so bright can be seen in daylight if you know where to look for it with enough magnification using care not to look toward the sun.

The shot above appears to be stretched in curves or levels to darken the sky and create contrast which is partially why I asked about processing specifics.

Lens flare almost certainly I would say.

Lens flare or reflection.

Also, assuming no dodging was done, any planet in this position would not be frontal lit like the object of question.

Nighthound wrote in post #10440699
Also, assuming no dodging was done, any planet in this position would not be frontal lit like the object of question.

Not necessarily. If the "planet" was on the other side of the sun it would be front lit. However this looks to me like nothing more than reflection.

ufo

pitrow wrote in post #10447630
Not necessarily. If the "planet" was on the other side of the sun it would be front lit. However this looks to me like nothing more than reflection.

Obviously a poor choice of words on my part, thanks for the correction. If it were a planet at that time moving in front of or behind the Sun it would be Mercury, and definitely not at this scale. Note the scale and this is minus the glare.
http://sohowww.nascom.​nasa.gov …y_transit_2006_​pearls.gif

Internal optics reflection is my conclusion.

Definitely flare. Has similar color scheme, too transparent, and far to big.