Transit of Venus 2012

Tonight was the Transit of Venus. This is where Venus comes in line between the Sun and Earth. As a result you can see a small black dot appear on the sun. This is Venus. This will be the last time this happens in any of our life times with the next one happening in year 2117. After work I stopped by the observetory to look through a telescope and had kind of given up at trying to photograph it but after a bike ride I decided to give it a go after someone on twitter asked if I had any photos. I am glad I did because the results turned out pretty well for the equipment I have.

I shot these with a Canon 7D and Sigma 70-200mm lens. I used live view on the 7D so I would be looking at the LCD to not damage my eyes by viewing the sun directly or through the magnification of the lens. The results are what you see below.

Clicking on each image will load a larger version that allows you to see Venus better.