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 | | Laxfield solar observatory is open for business! The trusty refractor points skywards through the blackout curtains. And no, it wasn't in shade during the transit!! |
 | | What every stylish telescope is wearing this summer - eclipse specs! The web-cam is visible as the white object next to the finder-scope at top centre: its cable is snaking away through the garage window. |
| And this is what we've been waiting for! At 6:20am Venus nicks the edge of the sun's disc and the transit begins. | |  |
| Twenty minutes later and it's "2nd contact" as Venus' silhouette is just fully visible. | |  |
| As the transit proceeds, the only moment of concern arrives when light cloud crosses the sun. Fortunately it soon clears and perfect conditions are restored once more. | |  |
| At 9:22am the maximum extent of the transit is reached as Venus passes closest to the sun's centre, but still only about 1/3 of the way in to the centre from the edge. This is slightly nearer than average, however, as it never gets particularly close to the centre. | |  |
 | | A composite of eleven images taken from the projected view shows the naked eye appearance of Venus' track as the transit proceeds. For an explanation as to why the track is a curve and why it differs from the image below, see the last paragraph of the "Technical Info" page. |
 | | And here we have an enhanced composite of images taken from the webcam to show that Venus' "true" track is indeed a straight line. This image has been rotated so that the sun's North pole is at the top (with East to the left). The slight gap in the track is due a tree getting in the way temporarily! |
| Third contact - 11:04am. Venus touches the edge of the sun and begins its departure. | |  |
| Just past 11:23am, and the end of the transit is upon us. Must be time for a late breakfast! | |  |
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