Transit Of Venus

[ejwwest]

I took these photos at the end of the transit of Venus today from Farley Mount, near Winchester, Hampshire. I was largely clouded out but there were a few breaks in the cloud towards the end.

Transit of Venus by ejwwest, on Flickr

Transit of Venus by ejwwest, on Flickr

Transit of Venus by ejwwest, on Flickr

All taken with 800mm lens on Canon 40D. No filter as the cloud filtered the sunlight sufficiently.

[Alan]

Great shots through the clouds .. well done

Alan

[Clayton]

Very nice EJ

[astroman001]

Great shots, I think the clouds add some atmosphere actually.

regards

Peter

[ejwwest]

Great shots, I think the clouds add some atmosphere actually.

regards

Peter

Thanks. I might try playing around with the white balance later but the exposure levels and contrast were the main tweaks to experiment with first.

[neil phillips]

some lovely captures from the uk, well done guys. Nice catch

[ejwwest]

The first photo just got shown on BBC South Today!

[Black Knight]

Ooh, congrats!

Sent from my mobile using Tapatalk, so please excuse the speeling and granma!

[kris h]

Great captures , thanks for posting .

[Pete Presland]

well worth the effort well done!

[ejwwest]

I played around with the white balance to get this. Since I can assure you all the colour did not look like this at the time, the sole purpose for doing this is for the atmosphere!

Transit of Venus by ejwwest, on Flickr

[MidnightSun]

Nice . You got in between the clouds a bit anyway. I had a blanket like a hurricane comming thru. Not any chance for even a peek at it. Glad to see all the others that did have a go at it....Well done.

[ejwwest]

I processed some more shots through the clouds:

Transit of Venus by ejwwest, on Flickr

Transit of Venus by ejwwest, on Flickr

Transit of Venus by ejwwest, on Flickr

Transit of Venus by ejwwest, on Flickr

Having seen the Transit of Venus in 2004, but without a decent camera to record it, I was keen to observe the 2012 event albeit with much briefer and more pessimistic viewing conditions. I awoke at 4am on the 6^th June and could see that the sky was cloudy, I did not hold out great hopes but took a chance that some breaks in the cloud cover would allow me to see this last transit before 2117. The event was only visible between sunrise (at about 450am) and an hour later when the sun was still low in the sky. Consequently an unobstructed North East horizon was needed, ruling out my home or the roof of the Southampton Physics department. I chose instead the high ground of Farley Mount south of Winchester. This also ruled out me taking my telescope.

Taking with me my Canon 40D DSLR, my 100-400mm Zoom lens and 2x extender as well as two pairs of binoculars (20x80 and 10x50) that I have taken to solar eclipses in the past, I headed off to Farley Mount. To view the sun safely, I have a “Thousand Oaks” solar filter for my Canon lens and home made solar filters (made from Baader Planetarium filter sheets) for the binoculars. On arrival I disturbed a Little Owl on the ground. Given the still heavy cloud cover I decided against setting up the binoculars and to just take my camera, lens, filter and tripod. This turned out to be a good choice.

I had set up in a field with a NE view by sunrise, but the cloud was too thick to see the sun. I waited hoping for the cloud to clear but to no avail until just after 0540 by which time the 3^rd contact had occurred so would not see Venus actually crossing the disk of the sun. Breaks in the cloud were now visible and I could see the Sun above the trees fleetingly through the clouds. I realised that the sun was both low enough and had its rays filtered heavily by the clouds that I could get away without using the filter on the lens. Never try this in any other circumstances as direct viewing of the sun will harm the eyes. I started taking photographs but getting the exposure right was a huge problem given the dynamic range involved. I varied the exposure times from 1/250s to 1/8000s so I had a good chance of getting a reasonable shot. I also shot using RAW format so I could adjust some of the settings afterwards. In the roughly ten minutes remaining as Venus crossed the limb of the Sun and exited for another 105 years, I had taken about 40 shots at different exposures and conditions. About 3 or 4 were usable and I selected the best ones with Venus clearly visible and processed them with Photoshop, correcting exposure settings, removing a defect from dust on the camera sensor and cropping. The clouds added to the atmosphere of the shots.

I was delighted that patience paid off and I managed to capture at least some reasonable photographs of this transit. Whilst none of us will see the next transit of Venus, there will be transits of Mercury in a few years time: less impressive but the techniques here should work for that. The International Space Station also makes regular (but very brief) transits of the sun every couple of months. The renowned astrophotographer Thierry Legault managed to get a wonderful capture of this transit of Venus together with a transit of the Hubble Space Telescope. This requires considerable planning and setup as well as going to the right place on the Earth (Australia in this case). Pleased though I am with my results this time, I have a long way to go to achieve results comparable with Thierry’s. My shots are available on Flickr, SpaceWeather.com and one was shown on BBC South Today on 6^th June.

[ejwwest]

One of my photos got shown at the end of the July "Sky at Night" special on the Transit. Available still on the iPlayer.