Transit of Venus remembered

I thought I would get this in a day early. Memories of 8th June 2004. I had a wonderful opportunity to witness a transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun. A sight not observed by any human currently alive before that day. A transit of Venus occurs twice in eight years then nothing for another 105 years. So the first was visible 8/6/04 and the second was only visible in the UK for the final hour of transit around 5.00am on the 6/6/12. Unfortunately it was cloudy for me here for the second. I was completely disappointed because what I saw 8 years earlier blew my mind. The day started with a beautiful sunrise as I transported my scope to Dad's back garden for a better unobstructed view. During the set up the sky was a little unpredictable with some high cloud that I thought would spoil the view, but eventually cleared to reveal a blue sky. From start to finish over nearly six hours I was truly blessed with clear skies and some wonderful images, videos and I even appeared on a live broadcast on radio Norfolk mid transit. An astro bucket list item well and truly ticked.

Mercury Transit

Mercury Transit 7th May 2003

The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence. As seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible. On the average, there are 13 transits of Mercury each century.

On Wednesday, 2003 May 07, We were indeed treated to another transit of a lifetime when Mercury's transit of the Sun was seen for the first time since 1999. The entire event was widely visible from the Europe, Africa and Asia,. Japan Australia, and New Zealand and witnessed the beginning of the transit but the Sun had set before the event ended. Similarly, observers in western Africa, eastern North America and eastern South America saw the end of the event since the transit will already be in progress at sunrise from those regions. But luckily here in the UK we were treated to a cloud free entire transit.

Solar

As this is a new site for me I have found a few of the nice images I have taken in the past.

Here are a couple of my Images from the Venus Transit of 8th June 2004.

On this beautifully clear summer morning we experienced a once-in-a-lifetime rare astrological and astronomical event. Approximately every 121 years, the planet Venus moves between the Sun and our line of vision so that Venus passes directly across the face of the Sun. When the Moon passes across the face of the Sun it's called an eclipse. When a planet passes across the Sun's face it's more precisely known as an occultation.

Telescope used was my 10" Orion Optics F4.8 reflector on a Vixen Polaris GP mount.

I used a baader solar filter on the scope and a yellow filter over the camera lens.

I was very pleased with the results.