On 8 June 2004, Venus was in inferior conjunction with the Earth -- this means it is between the Earth and the sun. What's more, we were at a point when the planes of the orbits of Venus and Earth cross. The result is that venus appears to cross the sun as seen from the Earth. This is called a transit. Transits of Venus normally happen in pairs spaced 8 years apart. 130 years pass between pairs of transits -- the last transit was 122 years ago.
Scroll down for a selection of pictures from the transit.
The whole disk ones were captured using a Quickcam 3000 fitted with a 300mm SLR lens, mounted piggy-back on an 8-inch telescope (used as a camera platform only), on a Vixen SP mount. The close-up ones were captured with a Philips TouCam Pro through my 114mm Meade EQ1-B newtonian telescope. The telescope, finder, and SLR lens were fitted with Baader solar film to filter the sun's image. |