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Astrophotographer Thierry Legault had told us he was traveling to Australia for the Transit of Venus, so we knew he had something special planned. But that still didn’t prepare us for the awesomeness of what he has just achieved. During the Transit of Venus, Legault also captured the Hubble Space Telescope moving across the face of the Sun. Not once, but 9 times, during the HST’s transit time of .97 seconds. “Thanks to the continuous shooting mode of the Nikon D4 DSLR running at 10 fps,” Legault said on his website, which shows his new images. Of course, due to the differences in distance from Earth of Hubble vs. Venus, Venus took a lazy 6-plus hours to make its transit. A few giant sunspots also join in the view.
Below see a close-up of the two transits and a look at Legault’s set-up in the Outback of Queensland.
Legault noted that just one of the telescope/camera setups was his. So, he had just one chance of capturing the double transit. And he nailed it.
Here’s the map from CalSky of where the HST transit would be visible, just a thin band across the top of Queensland:
Legault said he has some more images on the way, including the ring of the atmosphere of Venus around the first contact, images of the transit in H-alpha, and the full ring of Venus 24 hours after the transit, so keep checking his website for more fantastic images.
Congratulations to Thierry Legault for a truly amazing and special capture of the Transit of Venus, something that won’t happen again in our lifetimes. And thanks to Thierry for sharing his images with Universe Today.
Awesomeness, indeed!
Thierry Legault, thanks for all that you do! You the man.
This guy is amazing!
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?????? (Click At My Name For Link)
totally amazing that he worked those numbers and nailed it
He’s the MAN
Thierry, you’re a star of astrophotography – congratulations! I’ve seen many pictures of different transits, and expected spectacular photos of this Venus transit, but your photo shows a unique combination of an excellent idea, great technology, lots of experience, perseverance, and creativity. Keep the great work!
Not to detract from Thierry’s awesome image, but I read that several people were going to try for an image that included the ISS during the transit. Does anyone know of such an image, similar to this one taken during the 2004 event?: http://images.sciencedaily.com/2012/06/120601231754-large.jpg
Jon, unfortunately no transit of ISS was visible from anywhere on Earth, land or sea, during the transit of Venus.
Thanks to all for your nice comments!
Thanks to you also ,FRASER, for sharing .
Thanks to you as well Fraser for sharing. Awesome pictures.