Transit of Venus sky

The 2012 transit is over - I'm sure there are many fine images and movies of it.  I imagine Capt Cook would be astonished at the modern technology we applied to this event compared to his trip to Tahiti.  But one thing hasn't changed: there's still weather to contend with.  Here in the Schenectady area, we had solid overcast skies all day, with just a bit of a break around 5:00 PM.  This is what that break looked like.  Fortunately, I had two nice openings just as it began and just as the sun was about to sink below the horizon.

A group of photobloggers post a photo of their skies each Friday - it's called Skywatch Friday. Click the link to see photos from round the world.

 

F Number	8.0
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	14.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 28.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/500
Exposure Program	Program AE
ISO	800
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

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Transit of Venus 2012

By now, most everyone's heard about the 2012 transit of Venus.  Like most astronomical events, I got clouded out for a large piece. Then of course, the sun set before it was even a third over.  But still, it was fun to watch with my little one.  I have an old telescope called an Edmund Astroscan, and I set it up so that the eyepiece pointed sideways, then focussed the image on a piece of white paper I taped to a bit of cardboard.  The technique is called eyepiece projection, and it's an easy way to let a group of people see the Sun safely.  Venus is the round dot at the upper left side.  Other blotches are sunspots.

F Number	8.0
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/640
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	125
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

This was the very beginning; I saw a break in the clouds and grabbed the telescope and got a shot off as quickly as I could.

F Number	8.0
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	39.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 78.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/2000
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

The setup looks like this.  The telescope is the tube sticking out of the red bag.  I used the lens case to hold up the cardboard and the eyepiece is pointing at that.  This way, it's virtually impossible for someone to accidentally peek into the eyepiece and get hurt.

I'm off at a ham radio contest - post is on auto-pilot.