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Venusian Eclipse 2012! RARE!

lance

Class 5 Nepenthes hoarder
Hello TF
This year, on this day (if you have clear skies) you get to experience something that won't happen till 2117! Every hundred or so years venus goes in front of the sun and can be seen with a big camera lens (about 300 mm) or with a telescope. I highly suggest that you do whatever you have at hand to capture a sight of the eclipse (MAY be visible with human eye) because it will only happen once in our lives! Venus will certainly be bigger and blacker then the shun spots as it moves across the sun, starting at 3 PM in the West, (look up online your location if you want to view it). I will be capturing this with a 300 mm lens on my DSLR with the eclipse viewer in front of the lens (actually works!!!) and if I'm lucky the T- adaptor will get here early so I can get even closer pictures with my telescope. If you can't see it just go to www.slooh.com to see it where they will be filming it with their telescopes. Good luck with capturing this once in a lifetime event! I will be posting pics as soon as it starts.

- Lance
 
I'll try to if I can remember... :)
 
Its not an eclipse..its a transit.
"transit of Venus"..
transit and eclipse are not the same thing.
an eclipse is the complete obscuring of one celestial body by another..
the moon can eclipse the sun, but Venus can not. (not from our perspective anyway! ;)

Scot
 
we miss everything here it is always rainy when anything happens in the sky
 
Catch it on Slooh. I don't have any sun filters to observe this or take photos. I suppose I could brave the crowds at the Griffith Observatory.

Slooh Transit of Venus Update

Slooh host Patrick Paolucci provides a quick update of our Transit of Venus broadcast which will begin at 2:30 PM PDT / 5:30 PM EDT / 21:30 UTC on June 5th.
 
I am setting up telescope with solar filter to watch the transit today. Will try to snap a few shots.
 
Rainy here to :( Is the slooh website free?
 
You can watch the feeds for free. Paid membership allows you control remotely some of the telescopes, image capture and processing and a bunch of other stuff.
 
  • #10
Its not an eclipse..its a transit.
"transit of Venus"..
transit and eclipse are not the same thing.
an eclipse is the complete obscuring of one celestial body by another..
the moon can eclipse the sun, but Venus can not. (not from our perspective anyway! ;)

Scot

Twas just about to say! :)

I'll probably look at it through a camera, with protection in the front of course!
 
  • #11
Meh, might take a couple shots, just to try.

Stopped up lens, focused to infinity, superhigh shutter speed... One shot takes about a quarter of a second, raise camera, shoot, lower... When I take photos like this, I can see stars during the day... Crazyness...

Should be interesting.
 
  • #12
Meh, might take a couple shots, just to try.

Stopped up lens, focused to infinity, superhigh shutter speed... One shot takes about a quarter of a second, raise camera, shoot, lower... When I take photos like this, I can see stars during the day... Crazyness...

Should be interesting.

You wont see stars during the day with this one..because its not an eclipse! ;)
the sun will look perfectly normal for the whole thing..no dimming whatsoever will take place,
because it's not an eclipse..


and you will want shutter speeds WAY faster than 1/4 second..that will totally blow-out the exposure.
over-exposed by a huge factor..
I would start with 1/1000 of a second..probably faster..
whatever you would use to take a properly exposed photo of the sun any other time..
its not an eclipse! ;)

Scot
 
  • #13
Do not point your camera at the sun without a solar filter over the lens and optical viewfinder if it is a point and shoot. If you've ever burned stuff by focusing the sun through a magnifying glass you can image what will happen to the shutter and image sensor in your camera.

Do not look directly at the sun without a special viewing filter either. #14 Welders glass is safe to use.

If you are using a telescope with a proper filter be sure your spotting scope is capped or filtered too.
 
  • #14
Well aware good sirs, I have given up on my photographic attempts, to difficult...

I had my framrate at 1/4000th, and f/25 and the exposure was still terrible... Oh well...

Derp

Anyone have some tips on how to use a piece of board with a hole in it to see the thing?
 
  • #15
Well aware good sirs, I have given up on my photographic attempts, to difficult...

I had my framrate at 1/4000th, and f/25 and the exposure was still terrible... Oh well...

Derp

Anyone have some tips on how to use a piece of board with a hole in it to see the thing?

It's way too small to see that way.. just tried and didn't see anything

PICTURES!!! Th transit is coming along nicely and I was able to capture the famous "teardrop" where venus looks like a teardrop with the sun... heck yeah!!!

A little small, but see the lil teardrop in the top? Sure better then nothing if next time when it happens I'll be dead.

<a href="http://s1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd495/Lance_Plater/?action=view&current=DSC_0146.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd495/Lance_Plater/DSC_0146.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

A little more progression...


<a href="http://s1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd495/Lance_Plater/?action=view&current=DSC_0151-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd495/Lance_Plater/DSC_0151-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>


All down with an eclipse viewer in front of a 300mm lens! More coming very soon!
 
  • #16
Nice photos Lance!

All I got photo wise, kinda a scrub, no pics of the transit itself, but some of the sun...

DSC_0001-14.jpg


Note the stars around the sun...

Fun stuff, really liking the online views.
 
  • #17
A little more progression... see the lil' black dot?

<a href="http://s1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd495/Lance_Plater/?action=view&current=DSC_0164-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd495/Lance_Plater/DSC_0164-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

So far the pics are turning out to be very nice!
 
  • #18
no fair, its completely overcast here :( glad i can view from in here!
 
  • #19
Some more progression. . .

<a href="http://s1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd495/Lance_Plater/?action=view&current=DSC_0170-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd495/Lance_Plater/DSC_0170-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
 
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