First of all David says thanks so much for the amazing response to his Orion Nebula photo yesterday.
I thought I was going to have a quiet day today, but this morning I remembered that today is our regular 'ladies lunch'. It is always lovely for our little group of girls to catch up all together once a month. We do see each other individually during the month, but make an effort to have a group lunch.
David and I are out this evening too, so I won't be able to catch up with 365 until tomorrow.
So much for a quiet day. I really must remember to write everything down on the calendar in our kitchen and not just on my diary which I keep in my handbag.
This photo of the Transit of Venus was taken in 2012. Like the solar eclipse photos you have to wear special eclipse glasses to see this image. I remember the day well. A group of us were up at the Inner Light lighthouse at Nelson Bay and the weather was awful. Really cloudy and raining. Luckily just before the transit began the clouds cleared and David was able to capture this photo along with quite a few others.
Here is what he has written about the event.
When the planet Venus passes directly between the earth and the sun we see its silhouette pass across the face of the sun. Such transits of Venus across the face of the sun only happen on two occasions every 120 years, eight years apart. The most recent transit, the second of the
21st Century's pair, took place on 6 June 2012 and the next won't happen until 2117. The largest of the black spots on this image is Venus.
The smaller black spots are sunspots - magnetically induced holes in the sun's surface. Photo taken using an ND 100,000 filter.
As explained to Stephanie on the solar eclipse shot. David took this photo through the camera and the ND filter acts in the same way as the eclipse glasses do, so he was able to take the photos without damaging his eyes. Once he had taken the photos he then had to put on the glasses to be able to see the transit first hand.
@golftragic This photo was taken with his 500 mm lens and a 100,000 ND filter, as was the solar eclipse photo.
The moon, orion nebula and eta carinae were all taken with the body of his Nikon camera attached to his telescope and the photo of the large magellanic cloud was just taken with his camera on a tripod in the garden.
sorry I have been a bit absent this week, a lot going on here at the moment. I was out for lunch yesterday and out in the evening too. This evening we are going up to the Gan Gan lookout with David's astronomy group as he wants to photograph the ISS (International Space Station as it goes by).
The moon, orion nebula and eta carinae were all taken with the body of his Nikon camera attached to his telescope and the photo of the large magellanic cloud was just taken with his camera on a tripod in the garden.