Could This Be Venus?

With excitement I looked out of the window this morning only to see many clouds in the sky. I lay in bed pondering the day ahead.

When I finally decided to hop out of bed, I noticed the sun streaming through the loungeroom window. So I did what any good photographer would do if they wanted to see the transit of Venus across the Sun but did not have a telescope.

I set up one camera with the long lens pointed at the sun. I then grabbed a book to project the image on in one hand and had the other camera ready to take photos in the other.

The first photo was over exposed. By the time I adjusted the shutter and aperture, the Sun was hidden by clouds. It came out briefly three more times before I needed to race off to the city.

I knew I would not be able to make it to the Melbourne Observatory until 15:10 at the earliest. And I also knew that Venus would have crossed the sun by about 14:50. But I would certainly give it a red hot go.

As it turned out, I arrived at 15:14. Just as all the old fellas were packing up the very big telescopes. I had missed the transit by about twenty five minutes. Drats. To say that I was a little disappointed would be quite an understatement.

It was not until I decided to look at the images that I took in the morning that I realised I had some very compelling evidence for capturing Venus' transit.

Here is that first shot that is over exposed.


I wondered what would happen if I highlighted the over exposed area and then dragged the highlight slider in Lightroom to the left.





Hmm. So far so good. And then...


I am presuming this is the faint spot where Venus was in front of the sun? Yes? YES???

I totally think it is. I am stoked. Over the Moon. Very very happy.

Here is the third out of five frames that I snapped.