Today I witnessed a special celestial event. I saw Venus pass in front of the sun. It will not happen in this century again.
I had carried my camera and lenses to the school, but when the event started at 6:04 pm, I was not sure if I would see the sun at all before sunset. The sky was overcast and it was even drizzling from time to time. But I kept my faith in Weather.com who had predicted it would be "partly cloudy" and took up my pre-planned position on the roof of our Campus Center building.
The sun came out for about a minute - in fact came out would be an overstatement - it looked just like what you see in that photo. The Venus came out along with it. I could click only a few photos - all more or less the same. Then the curtains fell again, for good, but I was thankful to have even got this much of a view.
In retrospect, I now realize that if the sky had been clear, I would not have been able to take this picture at all. The sun was too high in the sky and I did not have a solar filter. The cloud provided me the required protection. In the end, the conditions proved to be just right.
