Venus Crossed the Sun for Last Time this Century

[Ahmed Shahat]

On Wednesday June 6, 2012, the planet Venus started its nearly seven-hour trek across the face of the sun. This is the last time Earthlings can see such a view until 2117! Venus transit officially began on June 5 just after (2200 GMT), and lasted for six hours and 40 minutes. Venus looked like a small black spot as it crosses the bright sun.

I tried to record this unique phenomenon with my Canon 550D camera (55~250 mm f/32-1/4000-ISO 100). I used dark and colored filters (Pola A160 & Cokin A153) to get clear photos as much as I can. I got the attached results, which are not as bad as I expected. I marked the image of Venus is with red circle. I noticed that when Venus moves towards the center of the Sun, it appears as faint disk as you will see in the attached shots.

[Donald]

Well done, Ahmed.

I am sure all the space agencies and observatories will be producing images for publication. But you have images that you made yourself and you should feel very proud.

[stephencamptonjones]

Ahmed
It is VERY dangerous to look at and photograph the sun without a SAFE solar filter. You could damage your camera and worst of all you could loose your sight.
BAADER Planetarium in Germany make a safe solar film to use for visual and photographic viewing of the sun.

[Ahmed Shahat]

Dear Donald,

Thanks for your kind reply. What you said is quite true; achieving things by hands has a different flavor. I read a lot of articles about the event and how I can take pictures for it. Although the lens I have is not powerful enough to take good picture, I made my trial and the results are not as bad as I expected.
Thanks for your encouragement.

Dear Stephen,

Thanks for your advice. As mentioned above, I used two dark filters. I appreciate if send me the site of the German company.

Ahmed Shahat

[stephencamptonjones]

Ahmed
Here is the site:
http://www.baader-planetarium.com/