Finally! An actual photo of a celestial/solar event. (Thank you, Mister.)
For anyone who missed Venus as she transited the sun on Tuesday, the above photo tells the story. That small dot is Venus. That large orb is the sun. But you knew that.
I done got smart and went to a welding supply shop, where I purchased some super-dark glass. Mister and I held that glass over the camera lens and hallelujah! We captured this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. (It won’t happen again until 2117.)
I read that astronomers first used telescopes to view a transit of Venus in 1639. In 1769, star geeks around the globe pooled their collective observational knowledge of that year’s transit, and calculated that the sun is 95 million miles from Earth. Those guys were only off slightly – the sun is 93 million miles from Earth. 18th century nerds were brilliant!
Personally, I’m glad I took the time to check out this lifetime’s transit. It may have presented as a black dot only, but come on! That Venus – she’s got it. Yeah, baby, she’s got it!