Transit of Venus, 2012

[Chris Dodkin]

Like a black hole in the Sun.

Won't be seeing one of these again...

The texture you can see is the surface of the sun, including a nice crop of Sun spots.

I was able to use Live View AF and lock onto focus using Venus as the target.

Bracketed two stops either way, and this shot was 1/8000 f/10 at ISO800

Canon 5D2 and 600mm f4L with x2 Extender and Solar Filter

 

[Ralph Thornton]

I won't be seeing it today! I had my telescope all set and took a look at the sun with its spots. Just before the transit began heavy dark storm clouds rolled it. It's been storming since and looks to continue through the evening.

 

[Brian Moore]

Stunner of a shot, Chris!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Thanks Brian

Ralph - sorry that the weather got in your way

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Shot of the set-up from today

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Cracker, Chris! Can't imagine a better shot. Love the sun spots too.

Nothing but wall to wall clouds here...

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Thanks Rob - I could actually focus this time, and the extra detail was a real bonus!

Sorry the weather didn't cooperate for you though

 

[Lesley Jones]

Venus and the Sun are stunning. The shot of your equipment is nearly as good

 

[Hamish Gill]

Awesome! Very impressive Chris!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Ta muchly Lesley and Hamish

 

[Pete Askew]

Very nicely done Chris. Did you watch it for long on the laptop? I don't suppose you recorded any video as well did you?

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Thanks Pete - only watched it for about half an hour - after which nothing much changed

Didn't do any video I'm afraid - would have been wobbly-cam any way as the wind was blustery and the whole camera/lens assembly was almost constantly in motion.

Hence the 1/8000 shutter speed!

 

[Pete Askew]

I wondered why you'd used such a high ISO (and consequently high shutter speed).

 

[Chris Dodkin]

When I reviewed my Eclipse shots with the same rig - I concluded that I has slight motion blur as a possible issue (as well as lack of critical focus)

So I decided to at least rule of the motion blur problem - and Live AF did a great job on focus with Venus as a target in the x5 and x10 magnified view on camera.

Set base shutter speed at 1/2500 (twice focal length rule of thumb for long glass) - and then had +/- 2 Stop AEB in play

Used the +2 shot as that contained the most detail, and PP'd it from there. So 1/8000 it was.

 

[Pete Askew]

Well it worked a treat anyway.