Photographing the Transit of Venus

[Joe]

The clouds were extremely frustrating, but honestly expected as we always seem to have bad weather whenever something rare occurs! I did manage to snap a few shots when the sun passed through a small gap in the clouds. I shot these from the Airpower museums parking lot since it sits higher than my yard.

This shot was taken using a Kenko 2x teleconverter:


After a quick review when the sun went behind a cloud, it didn't seem very clear or sharp, so I removed it and shot with just the 100-400:







While I didn't get any great shots without some piece of cloud in the image, I was so happy that I at least had a window of a few seconds to at least see and photograph the transit, since I will be 148 years old the next time that it occurs. Luckily, Mercury transits the sun every few years, May of 2016 will be the next transit by Mercury.

[eric8669]

very cool!

[moose135]

Cool stuff, Joe!

[gonzalu]

Excellent results, Joe... better than mine (which was ZERO)

[PhilDernerJr]

Someone managed this today...

Venus Transit by melbatoasty1984, on Flickr

[TJK]

Nicely done, Joe!

[Joe]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Phil, that is a great, once in a lifetime image! I'm still trying to capture a plane in front of the moon, haven't even thought of capturing one in front of the sun, let alone during the transit, although I'm sure it was pure luck that the plane passed in front of the sun at that time. I know that it wasn't yours, but thumbs up for whomever it was.

[sporky]

At 17:00 CDT, ventured out to start photographing the 2012 Transit of Venus from parking lot of work, only to find that clouds were moving in and blocking out the sun. After quickly finishing work and getting out of there, I was able to get home and gather up my girlfriend for a trip to the south where the clouds had not quite invaded. Here is the best of my shots.



-Tad Carlson

[sporky]

Someone managed this today...

I missed a chance to catch it directly with an AA MD-80 transiting the sun due to slow reflexes. Spent another 30 min waiting for the opprotunity to present itself again, without luck.

-Tad Carlson