Three Lighthouses from Janet Rice
Hi Joey,
My husband, Greg) shot this free hand.
Anita Dziedzic
2012 Transit of Venus from Bill O’Connor
Hi Joey,
On Tuesday, June 5 the last transit of Venus occurred for this century, and I snapped this photo using my telephoto lens filtered through a welding mask shield. What you are looking at is the Sun, and the little black dot in the upper right corner of the Sun’s fireball is the planet Venus. Transits are important because they help us nail down astronomical measurements. For example, previous Venus transits helped astronomers determine the Earth’s distance from the sun – 93,000,000 miles, a.k.a. 1 astral unit.
To put an astral unit in perspective, it takes light emitted from the Sun, travelling at 186,000 miles per second, 8 minutes 20 Seconds to reach the Earth. This means that the moment I snapped the photo of the transit actually shows the position of Venus 8 minutes and 20 seconds prior to its actual position.
For more Astronomy Geekery on the subject of the transit of Venus check out these two videos from NASA:
NASA Video: Transit of Venus Part 1:
NASA Video: Transit of Venus Part 2:
Enjoy!
~Bill O’Connor
North Shore Kid
Good Morning Gloucester 
Wow, what a great photograph!
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Thanks for these AMAZING photos, especially the transit of Venus!
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I believe the picture of the Venus transit across the Sun shows the Sun as it was 8 minutes and 20 secs before you snapped picture. However, the image of Venus, (since Venus is only approx 1/3 an astral unit from earth) would have been the where it was at approx. 2 minutes and 47 seconds earlier.
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