Transit of Venus, 08 June 2004, Fairfax City, VA

All photos taken and copyright 2004 by Roger M. Firestone.

The transit of Venus today represents the culmination of several decades of anticipation. I had become interested in astronomy before even reaching the first grade in school, and I was aware that transits of Venus were exceedingly rare events, occurring in pairs eight years apart, the pairs being separated by over a century. From that early age, I had been planning to observe the transit of 2004, if at all possible, and here is the evidence of success!

Pictures of the transit

These were taken by holding the camera up to the eyepiece. No support, but it works for a bright object like the sun! (A direct shot with 2x magnification by the camera shows nothing. Some people said they could see the planet just after sunrise, but I wasn't able to do that.)

transit 3

transit 2

transit 3

transit 4

transit 5

Pictures of the Observers

Youngest observer
The youngest transit observer!

Transit observers 1

Transit observers 2

Transit observers 3

And a movie, if you can wait for it to download (this is a slow site).