The Transit of Venus

"If you don't leave a comment - I don't know you were even here."

The Product of the effort . . .

click on the image for a larger view - ESC returns here.



The transit as seen in Hydrogen Alpha Light. Two frames from a video using a Lunt Solar Systems LS60T H-aplha telescope and a DMK41AU02.AS camera - One frame showing the prominences and one showing the chromosphere.



A video of the Sun setting behind the McMath Solar Telescope. I computed the position on the Earth where this event would take place in order to record this completely unique event. As you can see - I got my shot.



Tthe setup at home. We observed the first part of the transit from the backyard where I had setup two telescopes to record the transit beginning. The equipment is described here.



The setup at the location I computed for the sunset behind the McMath Solar Telescope.

A gathering of planets

This evening four planets (Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury)and the Moon bunched together in the western sky - a conjunction. I had a front row seat for the presentation, being atop Mount Lemmon hoping to get some shots of the Persied meteor shower peaking tonight. If I don't succeed in the later - the show in the early evening was reward enough.

Tough Shoot

As an amateur astrophotographer, I'm always on the lookout for challenging astronomical events to photograph. Well - tonight, a gathering of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon (called a conjunction) was visible at sunset.

Below is the view through a 300mm lens. A tough shot to get - the moon was only 23 hours past new and only 3 degrees above the horizon. This image was obtain just 2 minutes before Venus set behind the distant Tucson Mountains.