June 5-6 (depending on location) was your last chance ever to see Venus traveling across the face of the sun. This event will recur in 2117, when my great-grandchildren will be 60 or 65 years old.
I caught photos of the event in far Western Illinois by holding a filter up to my camera and only looking at the camera’s screen.
At 5:24 p.m. Venus is visible in the top right quadrant, just entering the sun as viewed from Earth.
Venus transit, 5:37 p.m. Clearly visible round planet in the upper right quadrant of the sun.
Venus Transit, 7:35 p.m. A few minutes before sunset. The two biggest sunspots are also visible.
I have several more photos to add to this post in the future.
Posted by thebeadden on June 5, 2012 at 8:25 pm
That is just amazing! What kind of filter did you use? Thanks for sharing this.
Posted by Jimmy Cracked-Corn on June 5, 2012 at 10:09 pm
The photos were all taken through two layers of 3.5″ floppy disc, held up against my consumer-grade point-and-shoot camera.
Posted by KeriAnne Gunz on June 6, 2012 at 10:05 am
This is awesome. The first blog I’ve shown my kids and they actually wanted to see it! Thanks!
Posted by Jimmy Cracked-Corn on June 6, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Thank you! My kids got to see this event happen as I took these photos. I told them that the next time this happens their kids will be 90 years old.