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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.
Click the picture above to see an animation of the whole transit
05:19 UT: Ingress
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11:23 UT: Egress --

Click the picture for a movie
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07:05 UT Beginning...
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0800 UT Middle...
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10:00 UT Near the end
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05:31 UT Venus entering the sun's disk
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05:48 UT On its way...
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10:11 UT Most of the way across now...
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11:03 UT 3rd Contact
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Daves Astronomy Pictures
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