VENUS 2012

  I finally finished my long overdue video of Venus 2012.  I spent the first half of the year photographing the Evening Star during brilliant conjunctions with Jupiter, the Moon, the Pleiades, and then the Transit of Venus.  I had meant to continue through the summer and fall as Venus moved to the other side of the Sun, but I'm really not a morning person.  I've also moved on to bigger projects with my new telescope, which is much improved after I discovered, and clean out, a spider web in front of the secondary mirror.

  Whoops!

Sunset Transit Photo

Transit of Venus at Sunset over the Rocky Mountains

  Been working on a couple of photos now that I'm mostly done with my video of the transit.  This is one I really like of the Sun right before setting over the Rocky Mountains.  I was so happy that the sky stayed clear enough to see the Sun on the horizon.

  Also, this is in a pretty remarkable set of photos on the Astronomy Picture of the Day Venus Transit Gallery.

Upgrading Video

  I'm currently uploading all of my videos over to YouTube.  My Transit of Venus movie can now be seen in all its 1080p high def glory.

TRANSIT of VENUS

 The Transit of Venus. I Finally finished putting together my video of the transit on June 5, 2012. It was a lot of work aligning a lot of images that were especially troublesome because of the 25mph winds during the transit. I got some good footage though, including video of an airplane flying across the Sun during the event. I hope you enjoy it. I had a lot of fun planning and executing this shoot.

Preparing for the Transit - Pt II

Binocular Solar Projection

  Just finished making a solar projector for the upcoming Transit of Venus.  I've had two days of glorious blue skies to practice with all of the hardware, software, and thinking up a few varying ways of capturing the event.  Hopefully it will be clear skies on the 5th and I'll be able to shoot it from right here in Boulder.

Practice for the Transit

  I set up the telescopes and solar filter Memorial Day Weekend for some practice on the upcoming Transit of Venus.  I worked out a few of the kinks with the optics and software and think I'm ready to go.  Definitely got one of the best sunspot photographs to date.

The Sun photographed on May 26, 2012

A zoomed in photograph of Sunspot 1486 on May 26, 2012

Eclipse Part II

The Annular Solar Eclipse begins above New Castle, Colorado. 

The Solar Eclipse of May 20, 2012 

The Eclipsing Sun Shines through Clouds above Colorado

Solar Eclipse Near Maximum

The Eclipsed Setting Sun finds a clear spot in the sky

The Sun Setting and Ending a Fantastic Eclipse

Annular Solar Eclipse Video