The 2012 Transit of Venus occurred on June 5th and 6th. At Lowell Observatory, Paolo Tanga and Bill Sheehan observed the transit as part of a worldwide effort: The Venus Twilight Experiment. The pair had two of the experiment’s nine chronographs and successfully observed the aureole.

For best results, enjoy with external speakers or headphones.

Special thanks to the Venus Twilight Experiment, P. Tanga, Lab. Lagrange, Obs. de la Cote d’Azur / Th. Widemann, LESIA, Obs. de Paris.

Double Transit

by Alan Friedman

sav3mys0ul:

Venus transit: full resolution details seen in extreme ultraviolet light

(via wildlydistorted)

alanfriedman:

The Deep Blue Sea

I can only share a little snippet of this story. I hope you can visit here for the big picture. 

I arrived at Mount Wilson Observatory the day before the transit of Venus and had just enough time to get everything unpacked and set up for a test run. I took two streams of video to make sure the computer and cameras were all happy and talking to each other. I forgot about these files in the excitement of June 5th. Looking back through the files while archiving the 200 gigabytes of data from my trip, the conditions on June 4th were way better than the following day… in fact, it is some of the best solar seeing I’ve experienced in some time.

Apologies in advance that the linked image is so big… but I couldn’t bear to reduce it!

SDO’s Ultra-high Definition View of 2012 Venus Transit - 171 Angstrom

On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. This image was captured June 5, 2012.

SDO’s Ultra-high Definition View of 2012 Venus Transit - 304 Angstrom

On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. This image was captured June 5, 2012.

Venus Transit 2012 Time TagsCredit: NASAThis still from a NASA video shows the position of Venus on the sun’s disk in Pacific Daylight Time on June 5, 2012 during the last transit of Venus for 105 years.

Venus Transit by SDOCredit: NASA/SDO/GSFCThe planet Venus (upper left) approaches the sun for a rare solar transit on June 5, 2012. This image was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

SDO of TransitCredit: NASAImage of the Venus transit across the sun’s disk snapped by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on June 5, 2012, and shown in a NASA webcast.

Venus Transit 2012 from Space: SDOCredit: NASA/SDO, HMIOn June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117.

Venus Transit 2012: A Fiery CrossingCredit: NASA/SDOOn June 5-6 2012, SDO collected images of the rarest predictable solar event—the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart which are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117.

2012 Venus Transit Seen by Solar Dynamics Observatory

This series of photographs of the 2012 Venus transit was seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory in space, June 5, 2012.

SDO’s Ultra-high Definition View of 2012 Venus Transit - HMI Instrument

On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. This image was captured June 5, 2012

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Against The HellfireCredit: NASA / SDOThe Solar Dynamics Observatory’s AIA 304 camera delivered this amazing image of Venus over the active Sun during the first few hours of the Venus Transit.