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Transit of Venus on June 8, 2004

The following images were taken with my 6-inch refractor from the roof of USNO's main building, when such things were still allowed. Like many places along the East Coast, we were greeted at dawn with thick fog, and all optical surfaces immediately acquired a thick coating of dew. After a panic search of the observatory, someone located a small electric heat gun made for such things which cleared off the dew.

Spaceweather.com has a gallery of ToV photos that is worth a browse.

10 seconds before third contact

third contact