The transit of
Venus happens in pairs eight years apart - but then with more than a century
between cycles. During the pass, Venus appears as a small, dark round spot
moving across the face of the sun, like a bug on a dinner plate. Here in
South-West Ontario we were blessed with clear skies and relatively low humidity
during the whole transit.
I was able to
follow and photograph this astronomical spectacle from start at 6:04 PM
until the Sun disappeared behind neighbor’s roof around 8:30 PM. It was well
worth the time.
The equipment I used was Canon Rebel T1i, 75-300mm lens with
1.4X extender and arc welding filter plate in a place of dedicated Sun filter.
Considering that the filter plate is a mass production piece made out of polycarbonate
(Plexiglas) and not an optical quality glass, the photos are quite sharp. This
particular filter has a gold coating that reflects the sunlight and keeps the
filter cool. Simple setup that did what I wanted.
If you look very carefully you will see 5 Sun spots in 2 groups: at center left are 3 spots on top of each other and second group in center right has 2 spots.
