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The first notch by Venus My wife Gamze and I traveled to Southern California to watch the last transit of Venus of the 21st century. We viewed the transit with the members of the Local Group Astronomy Club (http://www.lgscv.org/) in Santa Clarita, CA. The skies were perfectly clear, the location was at the very end of a shopping mall parking lot (http://www.meetup.com/LAAstronomy/events/66566582/), we watched the transit for about 5 hours, from the start until the sunset, and our short trip was a complete success.
Site coordinates: N 34o 24' 57" / W 118o 30' 31"
Centre Pointe Development in the Canyon Country area of Santa Clarita, CA
Transit start at 3:06 pm PDT
Sunset at 7:52 pm PDT
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:21:42
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After first contact
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:23:24
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Before second contact
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:24:30
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The 'black drop' effect This is one of many frames on which I was able to capture the so-called "black-drop" effect.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:25:50
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After the second contact
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:26:28
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Venus 'moves in' The planet Venus starts its 6+ hour journey over the Sun's disk.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:27:24
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About mid-transit A couple of large sunspots kept company to the transiting Venus throughout the event.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:28:36
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Jupiter and its moons? No, thin clouds during the transit As the Sun sunk down toward the western horizon, a few high cirrus clouds got in its way, creating this illusion.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:30:09
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Getting down to western horizon... More thin clouds moving in front of the setting Sun, and reddening effect due to light traveling through a ticker layer of atmosphere as the Sun goes down.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:32:31
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The 'flattened' Sun & Venus Again, due to the atmospheric effect, the setting Sun seems to be an ellipse rather than a circle.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:33:30
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The disappearing act - part 1 What you are seeing is the setting Sun, with the planet Venus in transit, behind a mountain peak. I believe these are the peaks of the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge due west from our viewing location.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:34:12
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The disappearing act - part 2 The transiting Venus is ready to being hidden behind a mountain peak.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:34:54
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The disappearing act - part 3 The last glimpse of the planet Venus over the Sun's disk in our lifetime.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:35:34
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After the sunset - farewell for 105 years! ..... unless there would be a medical miracle by then, no one alive today will be able to see the transit in 2117!
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:36:46
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My setup - 1 Orion ST80mm refractor + Orion glass white light solar filter
Lunt 60mm Doppler Tuning H-alpha scope w/ B600 blocking filter
Canon XTi DSLR camera
Clone of Orion SkyView dual-head alt-az mount
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:39:59
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My setup - 2 All transit pictures in this album are taken at the prime focus of the Orion ST80 using an Orion white light glass solar filter, with an effective focal length of 800mm (f/10) using a 2X barlow. Exposure times are between 1/320 sec and 1/30 sec, at ISO 100.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/07/2012 09:42:42
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Venus Transit at H-alpha One of the few afocal pictures Gamze took with her Kodak M1033 point-and-shoot camera through our Lunt 60mm H-alpha solar scope. Nice shot showing the transiting Venus and solar prominences.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/17/2012 23:13:22
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LGSCV Club Member Scopes - 1 Some of the scopes the LGSCV club members set up to view the transit. Image by Gamze Menali.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/17/2012 23:15:37
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LGSCV Club Member Scopes - 2 Some other scopes set up to view the transit. Image by Gamze Menali.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/17/2012 23:16:57
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Projected Transit A scope set up to project the image of the transiting Venus onto a screen for safe viewing. Image by Gamze Menali.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/17/2012 23:18:26
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The Club Tent of LGSCV LGSCV club members set up their tent for public outreach and educate the attending members and general public alike. Image by Gamze Menali.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/17/2012 23:20:07
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Finalizing My Setup Fine tuning of my 2-scope setup half an hour prior to the transit. Please note how blue the sky is! Image by Gamze Menali.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/17/2012 23:21:43
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Transit through a Smartphone This is my first and only try of taking a shot of the transit with my Blackberry through the Lunt 60mm H-alpha scope.
Submitted by
Haldun I. Menali
on 06/23/2012 12:42:29
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