Unless medical research does an amazing job or you find some way to get yourself into deep space, yesterday evening was your last opportunity to see the planet Venus transiting the sun. The next time this will happen will be in 2117. Since this was a rather rate event, I figured I would have a shot at photographing it. Here’s the result.
Pointing your camera straight at the sun is, normally, a mind-bogglingly stupid thing to do, especially when the camera is set up with a 400mm lens. To prevent blindness and the destruction of my D90’s sensor, I stuck 12 stops of filtration on the end of the lens and made sure that I only used LiveView when framing and focusing the shot. Overall, I’m pretty impressed by the final image (helped a bit by Photoshop for some sharpening, a curve to bring out some contrast and a bit of warm split-toning to regain some of the colour). The shot really needed a far longer lens and, if I had another chance, I would likely try to get hold of a 400mm to stick in front of my doubler but, as I mentioned, this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance so I guess this is the best I will manage this time round.
[Edit: 1000ISO – what the heck was I thinking? Looks like I was prey to the “failure to check all camera settings” while I was caught up in filters and poking the lens through a hole cut on a sheet of newspaper, etc. Oh well…]
Pretty amazing image Dave – you can really see the definition of Venus quite well.
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