![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.luterra.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/venustransit.jpg\" "\\"SONY"){kind=spacer}
<\/a>Sony SLR camera with 300 mm telephoto, shade 12 welding filter, 1\/2500 sec, F\/16. A bit dark but my sharpest photo of the sun. Five sunspots are visible.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Panasonic camera, shot through filtered binoculars. Impossible to get sharp focus. 1\/2000 sec, F\/6.3. 3:55 pm.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>1\/125 sec, F\/6.3 with Panasonic camera through filtered binoculars. Close to sunset, 8:20 pm. Note how far Venus has moved.<\/p><\/div>\n
We also stopped by campus to peer through two telescopes set up by the physics department.\u00a0 One had a huge magnification and the other had a hydrogen-alpha filter that showed prominences around the solar margin.\u00a0 Impressive, though I rather liked my binocular view.<\/p>\n
Venus is almost as large as Earth, and it is 1\/3 of the way to the Sun.\u00a0 If Venus and the Sun were the same distance the Sun would be three times larger relative to Venus.\u00a0 That is friggin’ huge!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
June 5th, in addition to being Elizabeth’s birthday, was the date of a most-rare astronomic occurrence: a “transit” of Venus across the Sun.\u00a0 Every 1.6 years Venus “laps” Earth, passing between us and the Sun.\u00a0 This is known as an … Continue reading