Photographing the Transit of Venus 2012

The transit of Venus 2012: Six frames at equal intervals throughout the transit, starting here with second contact (top left), then along each row until third contact (bottom right). The sun is shown with its south pole at the top, and in sunny false colour of course :)

On 6 June 2012, Venus passed directly between Earth and the Sun. This ‘transit’ won’t happen again until 2117, so I’m happy that I got some photos of it! I was asked to write a few words on my experience for the August 2012 issue of the AAO Observer newsletter, so in lieu of rehashing the same story, here’s what I wrote for the article.

Hyperlapse photography test using existing structures

I’ve long been a bit of a time-lapse junkie, so when I saw this video of Moscow a few months ago I was really impressed. People have started calling this technique ‘hyperlapse’, and it’s a combination of time-lapse photography with a large but calculated movement of the camera between shots. I thought I’d have a go without using any special rigs or mounts – instead of worrying about moving the camera precise distances, I thought I’d find some existing structure to do the measuring for me.