videotaping the Venus eclipse

Re: videotaping the Venus eclipse

Well, it's not an eclipse, but a transit of Venus across the sun.  The sun will be just as bright as it normally is, but Venus will appear to cross the sun.  If you're not careful, you can fry your DVX100's CCD's and your retina!  First of all the DVX doesn't have a powerful enough lens to fill the frame with the sun, so the tiny dot-sized Venus transiting the sun may be difficult to even see in a low-rez DV image.  Second, you'll need a filter that cuts out between 13-16 stops of light (0.01-0.001% transmittance) that attaches to the *front* of the DVX lens--not over the eyepiece.

Maybe you'r better off projecting a pinhole image on a dark card and filming that.  Then you're less likely to damage the DVX or more importantly--your eyes.
 
Re: videotaping the Venus eclipse

Thanks Barry,
;) I sure don't want to burn my retina.
I thought it was going to be exiting as solar eclipse, but I guess it is not....too bad...I was sooo exited. :'(
 
Re: videotaping the Venus eclipse

It's still an interesting event--even if it's not an eclipse.  The last transit was 121 years ago, so they don't happen that often.  The next one will only be in 8 years, and then it's another 105 years until the next.  In 1761 and 1769 explorers traveled to the far reaches of the globe in order to view the transits.  Measuring the length of the transit allowed astonomers to measure the distance between the earth and the sun.  Captain James Cook sailed to Tahiti to observe the transit and then sailed on to New Zealand to map most of the coast. While in Tahiti, his sailors traded iron nails for sex with the Tahitian women. Now how's that for off topic? :-)
 
Re: videotaping the Venus eclipse

[quote author=Barry_S link=board=Offtopic;num=1086571880;start=0#3 date=06/06/04 at 20:53:10]Now how's that for off topic? :-)[/quote]

Sounds good to me!
~A
 
Re: videotaping the Venus eclipse

I noted with interest that the second Venus transit will occur in 2012, the year that many think the Mayan calendar classifies as the 'end of the world'. The Mayans thought that Venus transits were very significant to Earth's inhabitants, and typically not in a happy way.

Perhaps we'll find a long-buried alien spacecraft which unleashes a heretofor unknown plague which wipes out Mankind. Say, that would make a great plot for a movie!

::)
 
Re: videotaping the Venus eclipse

Well if you do film it chi pls post it, we will be asleep on this half of the world as Venus it does it's thing (I think) & I would go with the pinhole idea! Sounds great!
 
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