Venus Transit Report

Long awaited Venus transit has passed. Here is my Venus transit story:

According to long term climate data, here in Ankara, expected cloud coverage was around 50%  during transit. Therefore, i started checking the forecast since last days of May. Until 4th June, it was usually clear and the forecasts say nothing bad about the day of the transit.  On 4th June, forecast said that there will be thunderstorm on 6th June starting late morning. Here, i would be able to see at most the last two and a half hours of the transit after sunrise on 6th June so i got shocked. I checked several online sources and all predicted that clouds will increase between 7AM and 8AM (transit ends at around 7:55). I had excitement and hope but i also thought that it was possible that i would not witness this event at all. I checked the sky until sleep, it was clear.
I woke up at 4:38AM but was not able to get up until 5:20 (exactly at sunrise), i moved to my east-looking window and understood that the Sun would rise enough in 10 minutes but there was dark clouds near horizon and upcoming clouds do not look promising.

Dark clouds covering my eastern horizon and upcoming  clouds do not look promising

So first i had my breakfast and checked my equipment, camera batteries and memory. My equipment list was short actually: My 7 years old Sony DSC-H1 digital camera, home-made solar filter using Baader Planetarium filter sheet and solar viewing googles (!) from Bilim ve Teknik magazine.

My humble setup

At around 6AM, the Sun started showing itself and first i tried to see Venus with filter and surprisingly Venus was very obvious and easy to see. I called my wife who was just awake, she came and her jaws dropped while witnessing this rare event . I started taking shots and the weather got clear, some of my shots are here:

As you see some sunspots can also be seen in the picture but Venus is much larger and darker.

During that time, i briefly tried projecting the Sun with binoculars but the result was not satisfying.
As time passed, clouds started to accumulate and i realized that third contact and maybe fourth contact would be obscured by clouds. After the Sun is blocked, i went to another room to upload pictures from camera to my computer. Then i moved back to my east looking room and have seen that the Sun was visible but it was agained blocked by clouds before even turning my camera on. I checked my watch, it was almost third contact time. The part of the transit that i don't want to miss was around third contact because i wanted to see the black drop effect. I have heard it maybe 20 years ago and was very curious about it for many years so it had some special meaning to me. And i missed this opportunity while sitting in front of my laptop. A lesson; never leave observation, anything can happen anytime.
Then i found some opportunities to get some shots between third and forth contacts. Usually there were some clouds as you see on the pictures but anyway i am OK with them. After third contact, I no longer could see Venus with filter so it seems that during transit, Venus' size was almost at my naked eye resolution limit but due to high contrast i was able to see it that easy.

Only a few seconds before fourth contact i got following shot to say goodbye to Venus.

To sum up, it was really a great experience, even better than my expectations. I want to conclude with my wife's words "Seeing the transit was very exciting. When i see a Venus transit picture, I remember seeing Venus moving on the Sun. Without seeing this event by myself, the pictures would not have any meaning to me"

Ready for Venus Transit?

After getting baby, i stopped stargazing and blogging. But transit of Venus is so important that i made some preparation to observe and photo that rare event. I made some trial shots of the Sun when it was at almost same altitude as at the last phases (only visible part of transit from here) of transit. It seems that photo resolution is enough to show Venus.

The weather forecast says that it will be partly cloudy in the morning, i hope i can see the transit. By the way, Astronomical League and NASA can give you certificates for observing the transit. For detailed information, visit this page. I hope clear sky to everybody observing the transit.