RobJenks

Fortunate to witness the solar transit of Venus this morning.
Had access to a welders visor so no danger from the glare.
Venus located at 6 oclock in the lower hemisphere - revealed as a tiny globe against the awesome disc of the Sun.
Puts the size of the planets in perspective.

Daryl

Took a couple of photos of it, may never get the chance again!

Rachael

Impressive photos!

Apparently it will happen again in 8 years... then there will be the 100+year gap before we see it again. (According to Mr Adam Hart-Davies, this morning!)

By the way... don't quote me on this, it was early morning tv and I was half asleep when he (might have) said that!

wiltshire_boy

BBC site

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Cool pics Daryl, what did you use?

How gutted am I? I recently moved 200 miles north to live in North Yorks and my telescope, complete with solar filter is still at my parents house down in the sunny south. At least my dad made good use of it, d'oh

Rumour has it that a certain scoobynet amateur astronomer (Tony G ) had the local radio station reporting live from his back garden this morning where he had his telescope set up. He'll be signing autographs later

nickthehead

I managed to see it with my filters on my bins. Beats watching it on the tv.

Very good pics Daryl

Hammy Hamster

Nice pics Daryl.

Better than my 'reflected onto paper' attempts.

Brendan Hughes

More pics here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/3786705.stm

TonyG

Phew! What a day!. Up at 5am this morning to drag the telescope out into the garden in readiness for the big event. Got it set up, then realised that the Sun was rising just behinnd a rather large bit of hedge, so had to do a bit of 'emergency pruning' to get a good view, especially as (Scoobychick mentioned corectly) the local radio station (Radio Nottingham) was coming round for a couple of live broadcasts. This was all set up by the Secretary of the Society of Popular Astronomy Guy Fennimore (website is www.popastro.com for interested parties - that's the plug out of the way). Actually, I was plan C since there was no reply from one of the local Astronomy societies, and the other one is currently rebuilding a bigger observatory and weren't in a position to help today. So since I work with Guy...Anyway, I digress.
Telescope was set up, and the transit began. Was somewhat childishly excited at this point, especially as I was seeing something that no-one alive today had seen before me. Guy arrived jsut after 7, followed by the radio car and roving reporter David. He spent the next few minutes getting a bit of background info, then it was live broadcast. It was only about five minutes or so, but it was plenty of time for describing what was happening. (I let Guy do more of the talking as he's done a few of these things before) and why it only happens so infrequently. Broadcast over, and back to observing. Noticed a couple of sunspots, so they got mentioned in the second live update (approx 8:15am). After that, the radio car left, and I carried on watching for the rest of the event.
It's the first time I've had to use suncream during an observing session .
Afterwards, I had to clear the results of my early-morning gardening efforts. I'm sure I didn't cut down that much hedge... but I've now got two large binbags full of chopped-up green stuff to go to the recycling centre. Now, I'm beginning to flag a bit so I think tonight is going to be an early night.

TonyG

Forgot to mention, I've got pics too, but haven't worked out how to post them yet.

Daryl

The pics I took were actually also projected onto paper as I didn't have any filters dark enough to take a picture direct. The reason they have a metallic look is because I used a macro lens which has highlighted the surface of the Kodak photo paper I used. You can also see the chromatic aberration caused by the binoculars I used.

mik

Best image of this that I've seen so far.........
CLICKY

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

The best picture I've seen - by far - is here. (Not mine, btw - the poster of this photo is another Andy C )

Daryl

Wow, that is superb - not sure I can afford the $2500 for the filter though

TopBanana

mik, that photo looks like a goods van floating in space!

mik

PMSL - and the thread title is........

TelBoy

Insert the word "nothing", and irony's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt...

mike1210

awesome pics. i was lucky enough to view it through a 'scope but those pics look far better