This is the Venus Transit 2004 web page of the Institute for Solar Physics
of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences.
We observed the event with the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) in La Palma. Below is a gallery of images from the transit. We will update the gallery and try to produce a movie during the afternoon/evening.
Sunlight is refracted through the Venus atmosphere. In the image to the right, this is visible against the dark background outside the solar disk. The bright ring is artificially enhanced nine times. Click on the image to get a larger version.
The Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope is mounted in alt-az, which causes the image to rotate with respect to the cameras. We are not compensating for this during the transit webcast or in the selected images, so you may notice a difference in orientation if you compare to images from other sites. Different numbers of mirrors in front of the different cameras, will also affect the image orientation.
We can now present some movies of the event.
When the sun rose at about 06:00 UT in La Palma, the transit had already started.
In English:
In Swedish:
 06:18 UT White light finder. The sun is rising in La Palma. |
 06:30 UT The H-α finder image is more magnified. |
 07:19 UT Blue continuum (436.4 nm). Close up of the Venus silhouette. |
|---|---|---|
 08:25 UT Blue continuum (436.4 nm). The image quality is improving. |
 08:21 UT The H-α Close to greatest distance from limb. |
 10:33 UT Deep red (705 nm). The Venus silhouette is now approaching the solar limb. |
 10:45 UT Blue continuum (436.4 nm). Limb darkening is noticeable. |
 11:05 UT The H-α Close to 3rd contact. |
 11:07 UT Blue continuum (436.4 nm). The solar limb is in view. |
 11:12 UT Blue continuum (436.4 nm). Egress. |
 11:15 UT Blue continuum (436.4 nm). Egress. |
 UT Blue continuum (436.4 nm). Egress. |