Venus Transit (June 08, 2004)

clic for 60% size 1200 x 1169 (166 kB)


About this Image

The long awaited Venus transit - first since 1882.
The Venus transits have been used in the past to calculate the distance between Earth and Sun.

Several effects have been reported, such as black droplet during second and third contact and light rings indicating the atmosphere of Venus.

Below a sequence showing the second contact with the Canon 10D (webcam crashed):
no black droplet can be observed, the silver ring around the limb of Venus could be an artefact from sharpening.

At bottom a sequence with the webcam showing the 3rd and 4th contact in higher resolution.
In some of the frames faint traces of a short light arc are visible.
The last frame of the animation is strongly overexposed and shows Venus with a faint diamond ring, caused by refraction and reflection of the solar light in the atmosphere of Venus.

clic for a digicam animation showing contact 2 (450 kB)


clic for a webcam animation showing contact 3 and 4 (900 kB)


Technical Details
Optics

105mm TMB refractor with 2" AP barlow f/15 (Canon 10D images)
additionally 2x barlow providing in total f/30 for webcam images

Mount MK-100 GEM
Camera Canon 10D and Philips ToUcam 740K
Filters Astrosolar ND 3.5 filter, Astronomik IR-block for webcam
Date June 08, 2004 05:10-11:25 UT.
Location Wildon/Austria
Sky Conditions clear sky, temperature 18-25 C
Exposure Canon 10D: 1/3000 sec at ISO100;
Webcam: 1/1000 sec, 360x240.
Processing webcam: stacking and wavelet processing in Registax 2;
other processing in Photoshop; animation in Imageready; north is up;