Venus gives a beauty mark on face of Sun, visible in Columbus Indiana

I saw the posts about Venus traveling across the face of the Sun, but didn't think anything about it since I won't ever see it again until 2117.  Well wait a minute, nope I'd be dead, in any case I decided to get the camera out and peak through the lens to see whatever I could.

With no idea or hope of seeing anything, to my delight I saw a dot... yep just a little bitty dot, and I figured my lens was dirty. Now all cleaned, I looked again, there the little dot was again... I started Google'ng what it should look like and this whole time I had been seeing Venus in front of the Sun. I guess it is being referred to as a "beauty mark" on a woman's face.

I tried, and tried to capture a photo but obviously the Sun was too bright for the camera to capture the detail, basically, it look like a bright white light.

I didn't give up and went looking through the house for some filters. Before I went digital we had a camera and bought tons of filters for different applications, some included sun filters. I didn't think I would find them after all these years, success I found them, but they didn't work too well.

I waited till evening about 8:30pm to start capturing photos, thinking it wouldn't be as bright I could capture the detail everyone wanted to see. After 3 or 4 photos, I realized I had to use a tri-pod because "auto-focusing" just wasn't going to work. I had to switch to manual adjustment, which caused unsteady shooting by hand.

While shooting the sun, I never really gave any thought  about how fast the sun sets in the evening, once it starts it is very quick. I jumped in the car and drove thinking I could  catch a break and get an opening that would show the sun setting without any trees.

That didn't happen which taught me Columbus has a tree line that extends beyond anything,  I guess the one time I wanted to capture a photo I couldn't. I figured I tried, and will hope I captured something worth using... I arrive back home, about 930pm, stick my camera card into the computer and fire up Photoshop, I shot the image in RAW format so I could manipulate the color hoping to adjust it just enough to focus in the "dot".

The end result is here... Venus across the Sun, giving the Sun the beauty mark it has long awaited for. The photo was captured behind LHP on Central Ave in the farmers field. I don't have one of the super long lens, but this was shot using a 300MM lens.

 

 

 

Tagged: Central Ave, Photo, Venus, Sun, LHP