Solar Eclipse May 20/Venus Transit June 5/6

[Keropi]

Did anyone get to see the solar eclipse from a couple of days ago?

It became overcast where I was at here in Southern California, but every now and then the sun would peek out:

From my backyard as the sun was going down:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00085.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00092.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00095.jpg

I moved to the front of my house:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00097.jpg

This is normally what I was staring at for about 45 minutes after the maximum at 6:38 PM PDT onward:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00098.jpg

In a way it was good that it was overcast because my point and shoot camera could not focus well through the welder's glass that I had. The no-filter shots came out much better. Since it was low in the sky, I think it came out decently with other things in the background. Using only a point and shoot camera, these photos came out much better than I thought:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00099.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00100.jpg

This was taken around 7:19 PM PDT as the sun was about to sink below my viewing horizon:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00103.jpg

Did you guys get to see any of it?

[Goldknight]

I took several pics, but have only posted a couple so far. They can be found here:

http://lali-gk.deviantart.com/

[Keropi]

Nice eclipse photos! Quite a nice view from there too from where you were at. That's a rather natural color that you got from the welder's glass. Looking through my welder's glass came out a very dark green color.

I'm going to have to get a better camera with a manual focus or I'm going to have trouble taking digital photos of solar eclipses when it's not cloudy. I took mostly blurry photos through my green welder's glass (on a tripod) because the camera wasn't able to autofocus properly while looking through the filter.

I wonder if the June 5th Venus transit of the sun will show up in photos I would take if they were taken under similar circumstances. I'm supposing that Venus more than likely would show, but I can't be sure of that. The upcoming Venus transit is supposed to be pretty low in the sky from Los Angeles. I tried seeing the one from eight years ago, but it was cloudy. I think Venus transits only occur twice every one hundred years or something like that. I've seen Mercury transits before, but never Venus.

Venus transit:
http://www.transitofvenus.org/

[Goldknight]

I initially got the green color with the Welder's glass as well, but then held the glass towards the bottom of the field which gave it a more natural color. It happened by accident.
Not sure if I'll try to shoot the Venus transit or not. Such a small dot, but I may still try it just for the challenge.

[Rekka Alexiel]

Wow, awesome photos!! I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to see it due to the weather... it rained pretty hard the day before and was cloudy most of the day of the eclipse, but I *was* able to see it after all!! I went to work about an hour early to see it with my students. When the sun peeked out of the clouds the first time and I saw it, I totally screamed. XD I was sooo excited! So excited that I completely forgot to take a photo. :p Really awesome! This annular eclipse was cool, but darn! I'd love to see a total eclipse!! <3 Can't imagine how awesome that would be!!!

[Keropi]

Boy, you guys were right in the middle of it all. It's too bad that Goldnight was not able to see it when it was annular though.

That must have been pretty exciting having everyone around you. I heard there were people standing outside of our shopping mall looking through their eclipse glasses. I guess they had a wide open view being able to look out over two large parking lots that were back to back.

I've been looking forward to that 2017 total solar eclipse since the total solar eclipse from 1991. I had an astronomy program and I was trying to figure out when the next good solar eclipses would be until around 2030. I had to do it all by hand too by seeing where the moon passed the sun each time each month. Gee, I think I was running it with DOS 3.3.

Solar eclipses from 2011-2014:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:S ... _2011-2014

Solar eclipses from 2015-2018:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:S ... _2015-2018

Other future solar eclipses on bottom of this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse

[Keropi]

The Venus Transit is set to start in 34 minutes:

http://www.griffithobs.org/exhibits/spe ... Venus.html

It's sunny out here right now. Not sure when the clouds might start rolling in from the beach though.

[teggacat]

The Venus Transit is set to start in 34 minutes:

http://www.griffithobs.org/exhibits/spe ... Venus.html

It's sunny out here right now. Not sure when the clouds might start rolling in from the beach though.

aawww man its totally overcast here, not likely to clear either

[Keropi]

Sorry to hear that.

If it makes you feel any better, I can barely see anything with my naked eye. It's such a tiny dot looking at it without a scope. I have to strain to see the dot. My welder's filter lets in too much light and the sun comes out too bright to be able to see Venus. I have to use my telescope solar filter to see it and even then it's so small it's barely viewable to me. It's almost like I'm forcing myself to see the dot.

I took some pictures with my point and shoot holding it next to my C90 spotting scope eyepiece. I'm surprised it came out, but it's better than nothing. I'm not sure if any of the sunspots will show up though. They are easily viewable through the scope. I wish my scope had a motor on it. I'm spending too much time having to readjust the scope because of the sun going down.

[ReiTheJelly]

One of my local universities had their observatory open to the public for this event. It was pretty spectacular. And by using solar filter glasses (the cheap paperboard kind they give you to look at solar eclipses), we were able to get some photos of the transit. Pretty cool!

[Goldknight]

Well I'm still uploading my pics and trying to sift out the good and bad. http://lali-gk.deviantart.com/#/d52ka2z

Very annoying today. The clouds made me play peek-a-boo all afternoon. Drove me NUTS! I struggled getting the welder's glass to stay put long enough to take the shots.

[Keropi]

That's a nice photo Goldknight! It came out pretty good. My twenty year old spotting scope has a lot of dust inside of it so the dust shows up in my photos too.

My welder's glass was only 10-11 so that's why the sun came out so bright using them. I had a 14 glass somewhere, but I'm not sure where I put it. How were you able to get the welder's glass to stay in place for that picture?

I didn't use my old film camera. I just put my point and shoot lens next to the spotting scopes eyepiece and they came out looking like this (I'm surprised they came out):

3:26 PM PT about 20 minutes after it started:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00111.jpg

3:43 PM PT this is more of an eyepiece shot. The edges of the eyepiece show less dust:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00116.jpg

4:11 PM PT:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00119.jpg

I went in my house around 4:45 PM and came out again when the sun was lower in the sky.

6:45 PM PT:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00147.jpg

7:24 PM PT this was as the sun was setting over my neighbor's roof. You can see the fuzzy TV antenna in the shot:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37 ... C00154.jpg

I didn't feel like crossing the busy street to take more photos. I didn't want to stand in front of someone else's house or stand near the curb so I just ended my picture taking right there.

[Goldknight]

I love how yours came out! Nice! I used packaging tape to hold 3 pieces of welder's glass in place. The lens is so big that that was the only way. It took several tries. I had to overlap the glass as well since some light would seep in and ruin the shot for my sensor. The other issue is the fact that the lens is so large that the tripod isn't able to hold it in place. I was basically doing contortions. I also used different shades of welder's glass. Some were green and other's more purple.

[teggacat]

aww guys thanks for sharing the pics!! They're excellent!
after tons of clouds it started raining here, couldnt see a stinkin' thing...
Thanks again Keropi and GK!!

[ReiTheJelly]

I did nothing fancy. I used a pair of these held up over the camera lens, using my hands to block out the rest of the light so I didn't fry my camera's optical sensor.

It seemed to work out okay.