Posted on 06/05/2012 9:03:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Today Venus moves in front of the Sun. One way to follow this rare event is to actively reload the above live image of the Sun during the right time interval and look for an unusual circular dark dot. The smaller sprawling dark areas are sunspots. The circular dot is the planet Venus. The dark dot will only appear during a few very specific hours, from about 22:10 on 2012 June 5 through 4:50 2012 June 6, Universal Time. This transit is the rarest type of solar eclipse known -- much more rare than an eclipse of the Sun by the Moon or even by the planet Mercury. In fact, the next transit of Venus across the Sun will be in 2117. Anyone with a clear view of the Sun can go outside and carefully view the transit for themselves by projecting sunlight through a hole in a card onto a wall. Because this Venus transit is so unusual and visible from so much of the Earth, it is expected to be one of the more photographed celestial events in history. The above live image on the Sun is being taken by the Earth-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory and can be updated about every 15 minutes.
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Thanks, SunkenCiv.
Hmmm...it’s rare? I’d have guessed it occurred more frequently with Venus subtending such a small piece of the sun.
Next one in December 2117, 105 years and 6 months from now.
And Ted, don’t forget to wind your watch!
This is by far the coolest picture I've seen:
This were just JPEG images, as I continue to process the RAW data images, which will have considerably better resolution/detail.
Venus is considered our sister planet as it's close to us and nearly the same size. The planet if put onto our stars surface, could easily fit into most of the sunspots seen near the middle of the image.
This shot above I was using different filters and shows Venus at nearly maximum transit.
Obtained at prime focus, with a 10" SCT, 6.3 focal reducer with a Canon 40D.
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