Universe Today
Wow! Amateur astronomers around the world looked to the sky last night and early this morning to observe Venus as it passed across the face of the Sun for the last time this century. The images are coming in fast and furious from what was an awesome event! Our lead image is from Jim Nista in Huntington Beach, California who said on Flickr, "Saw the contrails approaching the Sun's disk and starting snapping as fast as the Canon 7D could go!"
See more below from all around the world, and also check out some of the
first images and videos from last night.
You can also watch a replay of our live webcast
here
. For many of the images from Flickr, click on the images for a higher resolution view.
[caption id="attachment_95688" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="A close-up of the Sun with Venus transiting, along with the silhouettes of buildings in Israel. Credit: Gadi Eidelheit"]
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Our friend Gadi Eidelheit from Israel hosted a transit event, taking this sci-fi- looking image, and many more. He has a full write-up on his
Venus Transit blog
.
[caption id="attachment_95679" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Transit of Venus - Observed from Puerto Rico. Credit: Efrain Morales."]
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This composite of a sequence of images are from Efrain Morales in Puerto Rico. "Clouds moved out and but the Sahara dust still lingered," Efrain told Universe Today. "Started my sequence on 22:07ut thru 22:36ut. It was a Spectacular sight." Equipment: SolarMax40 Refractor, PowerMate 2.5x barlows, P/B LX200ACF 12 in. OTA, CGE mount, PGR Flea3 Ccd, Astronomik Ir filter.
Kaizad Viraf Raimalwala from the Purdue University Astronomy Club in Indiana sent in this image: "In this picture, we were using an 8" Meade LX-200 and piggybacked my friend's Nikon D7000 on it. Took this picture myself with my Nikon D90," he told us. "Had a lot of cloud cover at start so we missed the 'teardrop' effect and since we were in West Lafayette, Indiana, the sun set long before Contact 3 and 4."
[caption id="attachment_95700" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="The lovely but surreal looking image of the Venus transit caught the exit just in time on Mount Dandenong, Australia, just as the clouds moved in. Credit: andrewm2008 on Flickr."]
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[caption id="attachment_95680" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="A digital filtergram of the transit of Venus, as seen from Australia. Credit: Monty Leventhal."]
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Renowned amateur astrophotographer Monthy Leventhal from Australia sent us this 'digital filtergram' of the Venus. He said seeing conditions were poor, as it was very cloudy, with showers, but he still managed a great shot. Camera: Canon 600D, Filter: H-alpha 6Å, Telescope: Solaris.
[caption id="attachment_95689" align="aligncenter" width="379" caption="Venus visible transiting the Sun through the clouds, as seen from Navarre Beach, Florida, USA. Credit: M.M. Meeks. "]
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[caption id="attachment_95697" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Beautiful view of the Transit of Venus from Italy. Credit: Niki Giada"]
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[caption id="attachment_95681" align="aligncenter" width="535" caption="Venus Transit as seen from Malta. Credit: Leonard E. Mercer"]
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Leonard E. Mercer from Malta wrote us, "Here is one of my images taken today at 6.01.57 local time (UT.04.01.57). The conditions were very favourable. I didn't expect such sharpness considering the sun was so low. From our region we could only view the end of the transit. But still I am very happy with the resulting image."
[caption id="attachment_95694" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Venus against the setting Sun, as seen from Arizona, USA. Credit: Rob Sparks (hale_bopp37 on Flickr)"]
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[caption id="attachment_95682" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="View of the Venus Transit from Alberta, Canada. Some sun spots are also visible. The darker parts on the lower right are caused by passing clouds. Credit: Dave Griffith."]
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This one from Dave Griffith in Canada, who said, "Made at 6:05 PM with a Pentax K-r, a Takumar-A 2x tele-converter, a Sigma 100-300mm 1:4.5-6.7 DL lens, and a solar filter made from a sheet of Seymour Solar Optical Thin Film. The image was made on the side of Highway 63 between Fort McMurray and Edmonton. This was taken at ISO 100 with an aperture of f/11 and an equivalent focal length of 900mm. A brief tale about how I lucked out in even seeing the sun today is
posted here
.
[caption id="attachment_95683" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Venus Transit as seen from Pakistan. Credit: Ramiz Qureshi"]
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Ramiz Qureshi from Pakistan wrote to tell Universe Today, "We were badly clouded out here in Karachi, Pakistan for the past 2 days. In an awesome coincidence, the clouds stayed still on the morning of transit, doubling as an atmospheric filter. This allowed us to observe the Sun plainly with our naked eyes as it rose with the transit already in progress." Qureshi added that the two silhouettes actually is a composite/overlap of two shots taken an hour apart.
[caption id="attachment_95684" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Venus Transit as seen from Tehran, Iran. Credit: Saeed Amiri"]
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Saeed Amiri from Tehran, Iran took this image at 8:12 AM local time using a Canon PowerShot SX210 with Focal length: 70 mm, Exposure time: 1/640 sec, ISO: 100 F-stop: f/5.9, Filter: Mylar.
[caption id="attachment_95685" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="An artistic look at the Venus Transit, from Vihtavuori, Laukaa, Central Finland. Credit: Jukka Seppälä"]
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Jukka Seppälä from Finland wrote to show us his artistic views of the Venus transit. "I have tried to get some kind of artistic impression by manipulating photos with extreme exposure, contrast, brightness levels etc."
Patrick Cullis
provided this video of an airliner joining in on the transit action: [embed]https://vimeo.com/43523342[/embed]
[caption id="attachment_95690" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Taken with a cheap digital camera through a piece of Welder's Glass. Credit: Bill Schlosser. "]
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[caption id="attachment_95691" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="'I took this picture with my Omni XLT 120 refractor and Sony A33 camera. Sun was so low on the horizon that I was able to safely take out the solar filter without frying my camera's sensor,' said photographer Gustavo Sanchez."]
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[caption id="attachment_95692" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Venus Transit in H-alpha Composite of two images taken June 5, 2012. Taken with Coronado PST & Nikon D7000. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Credit: Andrew Symes (failedprotostar on Flickr)"]
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[caption id="attachment_95693" align="aligncenter" width="514" caption="The Transit of Venus - Black Drop Effect. And a few sunspots, as seen from North Carolina, USA. Credit: Tavi Greiner"]
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Another phenomenon observed during the transit included the 'black drop' effect – the small black teardrop shape that appears to connect Venus to the limb of the Sun just after it has fully entered the solar disc and again later, when it begins to leave the disc. Tavi Greiner captured it!
[caption id="attachment_95696" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Transit of Venus from Brixton, London. 3rd. contact through the clouds. EOS 7D with a Celestron ST80 80mm aperture F5 telescope and mylar Solar filter. Credit: Own Llewellyn on Flickr. "]
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[caption id="attachment_95699" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="A view of a view of the Venus Transit, as seen from Tallinn, Estonia. via @karthikvj on Twitter. "]
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Thanks to everyone who sent in images or posted them to our
Flickr page.
As always, you can see more great images at our
pool page on Flickr.
