Venus Transit June 5 2012

Fantastic Event

We had clear skies wonderful weather and saw the transit from 3:06 pm til sunset.  We viewed first contact and second contact using a Meade Backpack 60mm , 20x80 Big Binocs, and Vixen 80mm APO tracking and Pentax DSLR for video and photos.

We had custom made Baader Solar Visual Film and Vintage Tahiti Eclipse glasses.

After second contact the transit was easily visible in the Eclipse glasses at 1x.

Photos were at 600/16=37.5x

Visually, we used 600/8.8=68x magnification and also tried 2x Barlow at 136x as well.

The resolution was incredible and the black spot of Venus was a wonder to behold!

John Turner, Jan, and myself at this once in a lifetime event!

It was a wonderful event and we had much fun.  I made a couple of sketches and saw over 25 sunspots.  They changed over the duration.

At 5pm we visited a friend and viewed through a PST in H-a wavelength and saw several flares as well.

At sunset I carried the Big Binocs down the street a bit and caught the last rays.

Partial Lunar Eclipse Morning of June 4 2012

 

View from back yard of lunar eclipse at 4am.
June 4, 2012
day before Venus transit!

May 20 2012 Annular Eclipse

 

Dirty Rat caught sneaking around back of house!

Let me OUT!!!

Let me go?

May 20 2012 Annular Eclipse of the Sun 

Navajo National Monument 

Sunset View Campground

The Main Event

Before Eclipse

Just Before Max

Center Line Dudes!!!

After Eclipse

Jan and Wheeler with the ETX Solar Scope

Sketch of Sunspots

Almost Halfway with Sunspot in View

Sunset Afterwards

Setting Sun

Last Rays

Cool Binoc View straight from camera

Camera captures reflections of light

The Straw Hat Shadows

The Straw Hat Effect

 Binocular Views courtesy of Bill and Will Golz

Bino Solar Filter Breakfast Box

View in the Binocs