The last Venus transit till 2117 and who knows what the world will look like when that happens! This is footage both in the visible and H-alpha wavelength of the Venus transit of 5th June 2012. I watched it from near the power substation for the Keck Observatory, about one vertical mile below the summit (although I was still at an altitude of ~ 10 000 ft, ~ 2miles). This whole trip was put together at incredibly short notice. Indeed this was my first attempt at solar timelapse and my first attempt to use the H-Alpha telescope to do it. Knowing nothing about such things, it’s usually my reckoning that it takes about 3 attempts to get good at this sort of thing. If I had know more about H-alpha telescopes, I would have certainly spent more on one. The solar scope I got cost about 1000 bux (in europe where i was at the time), but if I had really known what I was doing I should have probably spent 2-3x that amount. However even if I had known that, it was not clear I would be able to buy such a telescope in time, and even if I could, when I travelled to Hawaii, virtually ALL of my weight allowance was tied up in equipment (plus a change of underwear). Even at that, I borrowed a tracking mount from a local and very well equipped astronomer friend (MANY thanks Chris) without which this simply wouldnt have been possible. I’ve got to say that given the constraints that I had (inexperience, lack of proper kit, lack of transport ability lack of time etc etc) I’m actually very happy …<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The last Venus transit till 2117 and who knows what the world will look like when that happens! This is footage both in the visible and H-alpha wavelength of the Venus transit of 5th June 2012. I watched it from near the power substation for the Keck Observatory, about one vertical mile below the summit … Continue reading Something you see ONCE in a Hundred years!<\/span>