On Tuesday 8th June 2004, an event took place that no person alive today has ever seen - Venus transited across the edge of the sun for the first time in 122 years.
The reason transits of Venus are so uncommon is because Earth and Venus orbit the Sun in slightly different planes. This difference, about 3.4 degrees, combined with the fact that Earth has a slower orbit than Venus, means that the two planets align with the Sun only twice (eight years apart) every 121.5 or 105.5 years.
The transit of Venus is very unusual and it also has particular significance for Australians because it led to the first British exploration of the east coast of Australia by Captain James Cook. These pictures were taken at Mt White 60 km north of Sydney in Australia with the members of the Northern Sydney Astronomical Society.
Date 8th
June 2004 3.07 pm to 4.53 pm
Exposure Time 25 frames per second
F-stop f15
ISO N/A
Camera JVC 3 Chip HD CCD video camera
Scope / Lens Meade 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain with White light solar filter
Method ? The JVC Video camera was connected to the Telescope prime focus.
The video was captured and then loaded into Pinnacle Studio for Video frame capture and noise reduction. Final sharpening and colour balance was completed in ImagesPlus.