Astronomical Observations & Research

Transit Gallery

Venus Transit of 8th June 2004

My Pictures



Some pictures from the historically significant transit of planet Venus which took place on 8th June 2004. They were all taken using a very modest magnification of 54x on my Tal-1 Newtonian reflector:-


The black-drop effect at 0538 UT [Abdul Ahad] Transit of Venus at 0543 UT [Abdul Ahad]
Transit of Venus at 0600 UT [Abdul Ahad] Transit of Venus at 0634 UT [Abdul Ahad]


A full sequence of further images showing movements of Venus, minute by minute, as it gradually started its trek across the Sun during the early phases of the transit (including the famous "black-drop effect" pretty much in evidence) are in the gallery link at the top of this page. Remember to click on each thumb nail photo in my gallery to see a larger image.

What these images are of course showing is an entire world of some 7,500 miles in diameter - nearly the same size as our own planet - crossing the face of the Sun as seen from our viewpoint here on Earth. The globe of the planet Venus is showing as a black silhouette (the black "dot") slowly moving across the face of the Sun, taking some 6 hours to make the crossing from edge to edge. This is the first transit of Venus in the past 122 years (the last one was back in 1882) and only the sixth such transit ever to have been observed since the invention of the telescope.

Transit time lines were predicted well in advance and my observations confirmed them to be more or less on the dot.

Geocentric Phases of the 2004 Transit of Venus [Courtesy: NASA]

Event

Universal Time

Description

Contact I

05:13:29

ingress begins

Contact II

05:32:55

ingress ends

Greatest

08:19:44

minimum angular distance

Contact III

11:06:33

egress begins

Contact IV

11:25:59

egress ends



Transits of Venus across the Sun are rare events and what makes this occasion even more precious is the fact that the next transit of Venus (in June 2012) will not be visible from the U.K. and the transit after that will not be taking place within our life times until well into the 22nd century!

I was very fortunate to have low horizons, both east and west, reasonably clear of obstructions and managed to track Venus through its cycle of phases throughout the spring months, leading up to the transit in June. Here is a sequence of 4 images captured using my Fujifilm A303 digital camera via a combination of the 4.5-inch & 8-inch Newtonian telescopes presently in service as part of the AA Institute's "observational fleet":-

Phases of Venus in 2004 [Abdul Ahad]
Above: Phases of Venus imaged on 4 separate occasions - 1. 22 March 2004 (55%), 2. 14 May 2004 (16%), 3. 27 May 2004 (4%) and 4. Transit of 8 June 2004 (0%)

The equipment used to photograph the transit was pretty basic really, just the telescope and a white projection screen set up in my garden, as seen here:-

The telescope and projection screen setup to observe transit of Venus [Abdul Ahad]


Transits of Venus have been historically very significant and their studies revolutionised our current understanding of the solar system. A historical account is here, if you have the enthusiasm to read all about the background.
There's more material here, including Captain Cook's voyage around the globe to observe a transit of Venus back in the eighteenth century.

Mercury Transit of 7th May 2003

The "black-drop effect"

Views from NASA's Sun-observing TRACE spacecraft




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Copyright © 2004 Abdul Ahad. All rights reserved.



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