Shooting the Sun - getting ready for the Transit of Venus

On 6 June, Venus will pass in front of the Sun. It happened a few years ago, but won't happen again for more than 100 years. So - barring bloody amazing advances in medical science - this is the last chance I'll have to witness it.

So I've been busy fabricating solar filters for the telescope and the camera.

Apart from the solar filter, the photography setup is the same as for my first DSLR Moon shots.

Our widest eyepiece is 25mm, and I can't capture the entire Sun in one shot with that. It's going to be a problem for the Venus photos...

The solar film is by Baader, and is available from most telescope suppliers. Mine came from www.ozscopes.com.au

The film is simply sandwiched between two rings of cardboard, then glued on a tube of cardboard. And you're probably asking, does the wrinkly film cause a problem? No. It's too close to the camera to be noticed. More importantly, the film cannot be stretched.

And that brings us to the serious part of all this - it's very very dangerous. The cap on the finder scope is taped down, the main filter is very tight fitting.

There was enough left over to make a separate filter for the camera lens for direct shooting. The long tube allows the filter to be taped securely to the lens but with room for the telephoto lens to zoom out.

I like how this shot clearly shows the area around the sun spot where the tendrils of the surface material get sucked into the spot.