Venus (The Little Black Dot) Transiting the Sun

A Comparison of Cameras

A Photo Montage of Transit Images Taken With and Without a Telescope

Closeup View of the Transit

In June of 2004, the planet Venus passed in front of the sun. This was the first time that this event has happened in modern times. I woke up on that Tuesday morning without great hopes of seeing anything. It had not been particularly clear the night before and I didn't expect to get my hopes up for an event that occurs only once every other century. In the early morning, I piled my gear in the car and headed out with no clear plan. I thought that it might be nice to get a view of the sun coming up over the lake so I headed out to Olin Park. I got there and set up my telescope and camera just as the sun was rising out of the murky sky. At first, it was so hazy that the sun rose as a dusky dark red disk over the water. As it rose, it brightened to a nice orange color with a black dot plainly visible to the lower right. Venus could be seen perfectly through a pair of binoculars looking at the sun without any solar filter at all. As it turned out, the hazy, murky sky was just what was needed to get the best possible view! Over the course of an hour or so, I watched the little black dot almost the same size as the earth continue on its way across the face of the sun until it disappeared back into the sky, not to be seen again across the sun until the next century. It was quite a treat to see such a thing from the best seat in the house.