A partial solar eclipse

There was a partial solar eclipse October 23, 2014, that was visible across most of North America. Patches of cirrus clouds moved across the sky all day but the sun was always visible. To safely view the eclipse, we donned our solar eclipse glasses and sat back to enjoy the show. At our location, the maximum coverage was about 50% of the solar disk.

20141023_1528_P1030528This photo was taken using a Panasonic Lumix FZ150 zoomed to 600mm (equivalent) focal length with an ND3 neutral density filter. The ND3 reduces incoming light by 10 stops. Even with the filter, I had to shoot at f/8 (the smallest aperture for this camera and a shutter speed of 1/2000 second at ISO 100 to get a reasonable exposure.

The large sunspot near the center of the solar disk is AR2192—the largest sunspot in several decades. The combination of solar eclipse and massive sunspot made for an interesting image.

Venus Transit of the the Sun

The transit of Venus across the face of the Sun on 05-06 June 2012 UTC was an amazing sight. Even more amazing is the rarity of this event. Transits of Venus occur in pairs approximately eight years apart then not repeated again for over one hundred years. Since this was the second transit of the pair the next will not occur until the year 2117. So, if you wanted to see a transit, this was your last best chance!

NASA has compiled some stunning video and images of the transit. The SpaceWeather site also has information and a user gallery of images.

Venus transiting the sun at 1523 MST (2223 UTC). The full disk of the planet is visible at this time.
Venus transiting the sun at 1523 MST (2223 UTC). The full disk of the planet is visible at this time.

I was able to capture several images of the transit including first contact at ~2206 UTC and when the full disk first became completely visible in front of the sun.

Venus transiting the sun as the sun sets behind the low mountains west of Flagstaff. Image shot using a ND3 filter.
Venus transiting the sun as the sun sets behind the low mountains west of Flagstaff. Image shot using a ND3 filter.

As the sun began to set behind the mountains west of Flagstaff I was able to capture this image with the lower portion of the sun already behind the trees.

Composite image of (1) filtered image of the sun and Venus in transit and (2) the darkening sky a few minutes after sunset.
Composite image of (1) filtered image of the sun and Venus in transit and (2) the darkening sky a few minutes after sunset.

This image is a composite of a filtered image of the sun followed a few minutes later by a standard exposure showing the colors in the evening sky as well as numerous birds.

(Edit: Fixed typo in year of next transit.)