Todays big event was the Transit of Venus across the face of the sun. Doesn’t happen all that often, the next occurrence apparently not for 105 years. And last night the forecast was dodgy to say the least as a big storm was due to sweep across New Zealand.
But I woke to a beautiful fine day.
I borrowed an arc welding helmet, but it just wasn’t good enough. The sun too small to see Venus which is only appears as a dot without binoculars. And with binoculars the glare was too much. So I smoked a piece of glass with a candle, and the smoked glass plus arc welding lens together was fine and with the binos Venus was lovely and clear.
So the next thing was to try and photograph. Mounted the camera on tripod, and using Canon 60D plus300mm tele lens and smoked filter as above attempted to capture. It worked… sort of….
Next attempt was to use the binoculars and project onto a white sheet. Worked just fine.
This photo was taken at 1229.30 hrs NZST
position
46.901249 S
168.126205 E
My apologies for posting this as I know it isn’t about wildlife, but astronomical events like this are pretty special.
Peter Tait
Peter Tait is a professional nature guide based at Stewart Island, New Zealand, and he works primarily on Ulva Island Open Sanctuary. Peter has been resident on the Island for over 40 years and was one time Forest Ranger in Charge of Stewart Island. Fishing followed forestry and was in turn followed by Talisker, a 17m charter yacht. He is qualified Skipper Deep Sea Fishing Vessel. In addition to guiding Peter and his wife Iris are hosts at Sails Ashore Lodge.
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