Transit of Venus as seen in California

My lovely wife is snapping photos already, as it has just started. Here’s a sample.

Canon 1D, ND400 filter, Hoya G filter, telephoto lens.

Via the WUWT Solar Page, here’s the image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory

closeup:

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philincalifornia
June 5, 2012 10:50 pm

Smokey says:
June 5, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Meet the newest member of the Team…
…specializing in Solar physics.☺
—————————————————-
Looking forward to the usual suspects, who take issue with every one of your posts by default, defending this one.

Graeme No.3
June 5, 2012 11:24 pm

Congratulate your wife on the photos.
@ferd berple
Ignore RoHa, he’s probably an immigrant. We have a lot of trouble with those, especially red headed ones from Wales.
For those who don’t follow, check out a photo of out lying, carbon taxing prime minister. If only she would transit.

George Tetley
June 5, 2012 11:28 pm

Thanks Smokey (5.06pm ) fantastic

Glenn
June 5, 2012 11:39 pm

George E. Smith; says:
June 5, 2012 at 9:31 pm
“I’ll probably get some beter shots next time.”
Undoubtedly. 😉

June 5, 2012 11:55 pm

Smokey says:
June 5, 2012 at 5:06 pm
See Venus on this cool orrerry.

Okay, that definitely got added to my bookmarks!

Geoff Sherrington
June 6, 2012 12:29 am

Sometimes the best images of a sporting event are after the players leave the field, with expressions of joy or agony. Here, I drove 100 km to get a gap in the cloud, then found I had just missed the transit. However, this unique photo of the sun, just after Venus had departed, will be treasured for years. There will not be another photo of the Sun just after Venus had left, for over 100 years. That’s a rare event!
http://www.geoffstuff.com/venussun.jpg

Geoff Sherrington
June 6, 2012 12:46 am

Anthony, your wife took a mean shot for a Canon. (I’m a Nikon man). Do add my congratulations. She must have a higher guide number on her flash unit than I do. (insert smiley). I do hope that no cameras were harmed in the making of all these lovely contributions. Ol’ man sun is very bright indeed and success comes from expert advice on filters, as your wife appears to have had. BTW, my mirrorless camera uses a TV screen, not an optical viewfinder, so I can’t harm my eyes.

RACookPE1978
Editor
June 6, 2012 1:15 am

I will remind everyone that the double transits of Venus across the sun were basis for the Mayan calender.
2008. Now 2012.
Too bad they ran out of the rock their printer (er, stone mason) was carving on. If the priests had just bothered to pay for a larger flat rock with more room for more dates …kind of like ordering some more pages at the end of your yearly planner, we would be looking for the “end of the world” in 2015, 2016, or several other Venusian transits instead of Dec 2012.

Editor
June 6, 2012 1:25 am

On holiday in Venice got up at 06:10,
I had worked out that the plaza our rented apartment overlooks, would have visibilty of the sun from the furthest corner about 90 minutes after sunrise here. I duly went down to said corner and waited for the sun to rise over the rooftops, which it did at 6:25 CET, I then snapped away with my Canon 500D with 75-300mm lens with ND 10 filter until egress started at 6:35. Cannot tell if photos are any good until we go home tomorrow and I can see them on the computer (typing this on my load). If any one of them is half as good as Mrs Watts excellent effort I will be delighted!

June 6, 2012 2:10 am

As seen from my garden in Iceland:
http://agbjarn.blog.is/blog/agbjarn/#entry-1243652

Adam Gallon
June 6, 2012 2:55 am

Woke up at about 4.30am, checked the sky – cloudy.
Back to bed.
I did see the first of this pair of transits, on 8th June 2004.

Manfred
June 6, 2012 3:11 am

Utterly and compellingly beautiful! Thank you all for the images. The eyeball mark 1 lesson in scale is brutal. Hard to believe that the significance may be lost on the climate model makers and CAGW lemmings.

June 6, 2012 3:13 am

Anthony. You are offering prints of the SDO images for sale ( or advertising the link to those prints ) Is there not a copyright issue there or we’d all be selling NASA’s images?
For anyone Interested:
If you would like your images & video of the transit to appear in Astronomy Now, please send to transit2012@astronomynow.com

Blade
June 6, 2012 4:36 am

Smokey [June 5, 2012 at 7:14 pm] says:
“Meet the newest member of the Team…
specializing in Solar physics.”

Wow. That is industrial strength stupid. And the author Chris Hill still might be over-qualified …

I believe this one hour of extra sun is slowly evaporating all the moisture out of everything.
Why can’t the Government get the CSIRO to do studies on this, or better still, get rid of daylight savings.

Fine example of a modern slacker, the species of sheep that will accept the AGW hoax and is a safe vote for President dingle-Barry.

Shevva
June 6, 2012 5:23 am

2012 Venus Transit Data
http://venustransit.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Shed load of movies.

Steve C
June 6, 2012 5:44 am

Nice! Anthony, your wife is a dead shot with a camera; you should think about getting her a telescope. I hear the Hubble will be turning up on the secondhand market soon, we could have a whip-round to raise the cash …
Alas, we had cloud at dawn. A sort of overhead version of the conditions which prompted the sign legendarily spotted at an English port years ago: “Fog in Channel. Continent cut off.”

Owen in GA
June 6, 2012 6:05 am

To all of you who shared your wonderful photographs I have one thing to say: YOU ARE FANTASTIC, Thank you for sharing! We got clouded out and didn’t get any breaks in the clouds.

J.Hansford
June 6, 2012 6:18 am

Used me binoculars and a sheet of white paper…. Yep. Thar she be, a mighty planet as a blurry black dot…

James Ard
June 6, 2012 6:41 am

Three pairs of sunglasses and a tinted window and I still had to wait until dusk to see it. I was looking forward to Anthony’s images, and he delivered yet again.

Henry Galt
June 6, 2012 8:10 am

Just got home from Glastonbury Tor. 3/4 hour of sighting between the clouds. Lucky x2 as I went expecting to find the two guys I shared the day, and their 2″ reflector, with in 2004 (didn’t show) but bumped into a 72 year old astronomer with massive binos and filters to match.
Once in a lifetime…..

stricq
June 6, 2012 8:19 am

Thanks for pictures. I seem to have lost my solar filter so I couldn’t check it out myself.

Mike McMillan
June 6, 2012 8:48 am
Terry
June 6, 2012 9:00 am

Thanks for the pics Mrs. Watts!
And thanks for the links to see it post transit!

Jim G
June 6, 2012 9:26 am

Good shots. Mine are through an 8″ SCT and show the sun spots. Would upload if I knew how.

Bob Kutz
June 6, 2012 9:53 am

So there I stood; southeast Iowa, 14F welding glass in hand, waiting for what appeared to be a break in the clouds after the rain moved through. Hasn’t rained much here lately . . . . so of course today we get some. Clouds never moved out.
2117 did you say? Seems like an awful long time to wait. Maybe my grandchildren will see it? Great grandchildren?
Oh well, at least people are good enough to post their great images.