Transit of Venus

NOTES DATE: Tuesday, June 8, 2004 TIME: 7:03 am EDT FILM: Kodachrome 64 LOCATION: Mount Agamenticus (near Cape Neddick, Maine) / Latitude:  43° 13' 30" N, Longitude:  70° 41'  30" W INSTRUMENT: Meade 10" Schmidt-Cassegrain w/ Lumicon Giant Easy Guider (f/6.3) and Baader Solar Filter. PROCESSING: Slide scanned with Epson Perfection 3200 scanner and cleaned up and colorized with Adobe Photoshop 7.0 COMMENTS: The historic Transit of Venus approximately 2 minutes before Contact III.  The legendary, but dreaded "Black Drop Effect" is visible.   Note the limb darkening and the lack of sunspots on that Tuesday morning.  Two small groups of sunspots were visible right in the center of the Sun, but I was unable to record them on film.  There are some faculae visible slightly above and to the right of Venus - between the 4 o'clock and 5 o'clock position.  Granulation is also quite prominent in this photo ; especially close to the limb.