The transit of Venus happened last evening with the partial clouds I hoped for. The rain stopped around 5 PM, sun came out, and then around the time the event started clouds began to block some of the intensity of the sun. After a bit the clouds got too heavy to see the sun. But at sunset there was another brief window of opportunity. The photo below was taken at 7:58 PM EST, shortly before the sun set. It shows a full-frame view, this image was not cropped.
I took the photos of the transit with a 200-400 f/4 lens fitted with a 2X telextender on a D300 body. The photo above was taken at 1/8000 sec, f/16, and ISO 100 (EC=-4). I focused manually. I was fortunate to be on a lake with a good view to the west, and the weather cooperated for what I could accomplish without special filters.
In the slide show that follows you might see other spots on the sun. I believe these are real, not dust on my sensor. They occur in the same spots on the sun and in different spots relative to my frame/sensor.
It was a thrill to view the event, and the sunset wasn’t too shabby either.
