2005 HS Photo Contest Pictures
2005 High School Photo Contest Winners
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Second Place
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Natural Category
Tuesday, June 8, 2004, was a special day—The Transit of Venus. The last time it was seen was on Dec. 6, 1882. This rare occurrence, where Venus crosses over the Sun, happens twice every 130 years because Venus orbits the Sun just over three times in the time it takes the Earth to orbit twice, meaning Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun approximately once every 19 months. Because the Earth and Venus are at a slight angle, we usually see Venus passing over or under the Sun—rarely across it. The Sun appears to be red due to the Coronado Hydrogen-Alpha filter (SolarMax, 60mm) I used. To take this picture, I took my digital camera (Minolta XT), stuck it into the eyepiece (10mm, Pentax XL) of the TeleVue Ranger (70mm ED, 480mm fl, f/6.8).
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