Back on June 5th (in the Pacific time zone) was a singular event: The Transit of Venus. Venus passed directly between the Earth and the Sun, passing across the face of the Sun as seen from the Earth. This happens rarely. While the last transit was eight years ago, the next is 105 years from now. Clearly unique in my lifetime.
The last Transit was not visible from Southern California. This one was, starting at about 3pm and continuing until sunset. I had prepped my C-8 on my old CGE mount (both worked flawlessly) with a Mylar solar filter. I made a filter for my wife’s 200mm Nikon zoom. We had Sun goggles. I’d arranged my schedule to take the afternoon off, arriving just in time to open the observatory and point the scope.
The Transit started right on time. There were a few sunspots on the face of the Sun, adding some visual interest. One friend came by to see it. It was a nice, low-key event, somewhat visually interesting. What really made it fun was knowing that we won’t be seeing it again.
I took two images through the C-8. The first was taken early in the transit, pointing my digital camera through the eyepiece. Some visual interest with the sunspots.
Venus transiting the Sun, taken with eyepiece projection through a C-8 at about 3:30pm PDT 5-Jun-12.
The second was taken with my trusty ToUCamPro directly through the scope with a f6.3 focal reducer. Not all that pretty, but an accurate image.
Venus transiting the Sun, taken at about 5pm PDT 5-Jun-12 with a ToUCamPro on a C-8 @ f6.3
Jerry Kamienski took a beautiful video of the Transit out at Lake Riverside.
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