Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Transit of Venus



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.

3 comments:

  1. it has come out really nice. i was confident that u will capture it, even it would have been more cloudy :)

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  2. OMG! eto puro Nat Geo-ke haar maniyechhen Sugata. romanchokor chhobi hoyechhe, sotyi. ar dekhechen, universe kirokom megh-tegher bondobosto kore apnar chhobi tolar subidhe kore dilo? erporeo bolben groho-nokkhotre bishwas koren na?

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  3. @Atreyee: Thank you, though I do not think I would have been able to capture it if it was either more or less cloudy.

    @Kuntala: Photota amar nijer expectation er thekei bhalo hoyechhe eta thik. Eta dekhle hothat kore bojha jaay, je surjo ta kato baro taai na? Shukro groho kintu praay prithibir soman!

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