Astrovideo: Klingon Bird of Prey Attacks Venus!

By Nancy Atkinson - August 16, 2012 at 9:06 PM UTC | Planetary Science
bird-of-prey-venus.jpg

Bird of Prey at Venus during Transit of 2012. Credit: John Chumack

"Okay, so it's not a Klingon War Bird," admits astrophotographer John Chumack, but it is a Sonoran Desert Bird of Prey swooping by Venus' location in the sky during its transit across the face of the Sun in June 2012. And it is "freakin' cool," just as John describes it on Flickr.

John said he saw the "attack" live during his time on Kitt Peak in Arizona for the Transit of Venus observations, but just recently located and processed the footage. "The Sun was low to the horizon by this time...which accounts for the distorted looking Venus... Goes to show, you never know what will enter your field of view while imaging!"

The video of the event is below:

Thanks to John for sharing his image; see more of his work at his website,

Galactic Images

or

his Flickr page

.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com