I worried I would have to drive a couple hours west to dodge clouds that threatened to hide the Transit of Venus. But instead I went to Onan Observatory at Baylor Park, a site of the Minnesota Astronomical Society not far from home. A few dozen telescopes and hundreds of observers were out for this event that won't come around again until 2117. The Twin Cities Pioneer Press covered the story and reporter Richard Chin quoted me at the end of his article.
I really wanted to nab a photo. The black-and-white shot was my best of many attempts with a Nikon D5000 and 10-inch scope with a solar film filter. The shadow of Venus is the circle at the upper right. The other blotches are sunspots, and the texture is the granularity of the sun's surface. The "heat" and duo-tone "blue" versions were created with simple clicks in Google's sweet Picasa photo software. The colors have nothing to do with anything real. Just photo effects.
The links below open large versions. Windows users can open and right click the photos to save or set as your computer desktop. You can see more of my photos at kjphotos.
Transit of Venus 2012--Large Heat
Transit of Venus 2012--Large Blue
Transit of Venus 2012--Large White
