In just two days the planet Venus will make a transit of the Sun which can not be seen again until 2117. My plans are to video the Ingress of the planet onto the disk using two video cameras - one white-light and one H-Alpha Light. H-Alpha or Hydrogen Alpha refers to the light emitted by Hydrogen atoms which have been ionized. This is the light which structures in the chromosphere of the Sun emit - including prominences and Solar flares. I'm currently testing all the hardware involved - below are images of the setup I'm using.
Since the Sun sets with Venus still in transit, I plan on driving to a undisclosed location to film the Sun setting behind the McMath Solar Telescope located on Kitt Peak, while Venus is still on the Sun's disk. The Video should look very similar to the one below taken a year ago, with the exception that the silhouette of Venus will be visible. Clear Skies.
3 comments:
Hi Dave-
Tom Polakis tried to talk me into doing a Venus transit time lapse with it ending during sunset behind Kitt Peak, but decided it was too much work. Suspect there is a narrow dirt road headed south west of the MMT base camp that works. Nice sunset time lapse! Did you take that one? You rarely see the McMath-Pierce scope missing its heliostat! I'll likely be down on the UA mall, but will try taking pictures from there.
-Dean
Thanks Dean - and yes - I shot the video of the McMath Sunset. I worry about the transit - it will take 17 minutes for Venus to Ingress - I don't think my high res digital video cameras can actually take a 17 minute video. Best I test this out!
David, You are so amazing - it blows my mind. I remember when you were just getting started with photography and now - WOW. WOW. WOW. I am really excited to see you in a couple weeks at your show. (before your show, really). Love Kristen.
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