Tuesday, June 5, 2012

iPhone photos of Venus transit through a telescope with a solar filter

transit of venus from iphone
Transit of Venus from iPhone 6-5-2012, 18:36:34 EDT
Transit of Venus (iPhone) 6-5-2012, 18:18:36 EDT
Transit of Venus (iPhone) 6-5-2012, 18:36:39 EDT

Venus is clearly visible (through this somewhat dusty eyepiece) as a small black dot about 1/30th the diameter of the Sun.

I'm not sure why the position of Venus is so whack-a-doo in each of the photos, I'm guessing it has something to do with the mirrors reversing and flipping the image, and then my iPhone turning sideways to get a good angle for the picture.

I'm so glad I was able to observe this rare event! I feel privileged to have casually snapped some pictures on my iPhone, while astronomers observing previous transits had to trace the silhouette by hand.

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