I took off work a little early and came home to set up my 12.5″ Dobsonian telescope in our front yard to view the Venus transit (where the planet Venus comes between the Earth and the Sun). The last Venus transit was in 2004. The one before that was in 1882. The next one won’t be until 2117.
I used a stopped down white light filter affixed to the front of the scope. It was partly cloudy and very windy. I was paranoid about the wind possibly blowing the filter off the scope and allowing the focused sun to melt my eyeball so I put extra tape all around to secure it.
Venus Transit Setup - Copyright (c) 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
A Curious Spectator - copyright (c) 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
All of the following shots of the Sun were taken with my Canon Power Shot SD1100 IS digital camera hand held at the telescope lens. First Contact was right at 5:05 pm CDT. You can see the silhouette of Venus just starting to appear at the bottom left of the picture below. Several good sunspots were also visible.
First Contact - copyright (c) 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
Above shot was through a 26mm Plossl (59x). Next two shots were through a 9mm Televue (169x).
Between 1st and 2nd Contact - copyright (c) 2112 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
This next picture really doesn’t show it but I could definitely see a very thin band of light (called an aureole) around the edge of the planet beyond the limb of the Sun. About 3-4 minutes before 2nd contact (where the trailing edge of Venus comes inside the Sun’s limb) I could see two very faint glows along the back edge of the planet nearest the Sun’s limb and about 1-2 minutes before 2nd contact I could see a very thin streak of light all the way around. I will try to do a sketch or two of this phenomenon for posting at a later date.
I did not, however, see any “teardrop effect” (where the silhouette of Venus appears to still be connected to the Sun’s limb by a small thread following 2nd contact).
Approaching 2nd Contact - copyright (c) 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
At this point, I could clearly see Venus “naked eye” through filter glasses. I tried to take some pictures through the filter glasses but they didn’t turn out very well.
Just after 2nd contact - copyright (c) 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
The blackness of the silhouette of Venus seemed darker than the blackness surrounding the Sun. This must have been an illusion because earlier I had not been able to discern the outline of the planet before first contact.
About an hour into the transit - copyright (c) 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
About 1.5 hours into transit - copyright (c) 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
Nearly two hours into the transit, the Sun started to set into the treetops in our backyard.
About 2 hours into transit - copyright (c) 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
About 7:20 pm CDT. Last glimpse of beautiful Venus transiting the Sun for 105 years. I wonder what the world will be like then?
Venus transit through the tree tops - copyright (c) Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
Observer observing observer - copyright (c) 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
Sorry to hear about your father. My condolences.
Nice shots of the transit.
I wasn’t able to set up in time for first contact, but I was up and running before second contact. I did see a teardrop effect, but did not notice the tail-end glow you mention. That would have been cool, as visual evidence of Venus’ atmosphere.
Took plenty of hand-held pictures, too. Not having any luck with shooting through the h-alpha scope. The contrast is just too great.
Shots through the white light filter came out okay.
I posted a very brief write-up on my astronomy blog. Included one not-horrible shot through the h-alpha, and one of many okay shots through the white light filter.
Thanks,
The aureole glow was very subtle and I was surprised that I could see it. I did not see it in 2004 just before 4th contact during that transit. I don’t know if that was because I didn’t know what to look for or if it really wasn’t visible then.
Not too bad on the H-Alpha shots. Can you manually control the exposure settings on your camera? You might experiment with different settings. Some sort of adapter would probably help, too – though your camera is probably not made to accept one. Mine isn’t.
Bob,
My little point and shoot has the advantage of a small lens, so I can shoot through a 1 1/4″ eyepiece, but no manual controls. There are several presets, which I suppose I could play with, but nothing to directly set the shutter or f-stop. I’m sure I’ll keep experimenting, though.