The 2004 Venus Transit
as viewed from Mankato, MN

June 8, 2004 was not exactly clear in Mankato. Sunrise occurred around 5:34 a.m. CDT, but the Sun remained hidden behind the clouds for quite awhile. (Click on each thumbnail for a full image.)
5:44:06 DSCF0042.JPG 5:59:51 DSCF0043.JPG
It did not look good at sunrise. It wasn't much better at 6:00 a.m.
Finally the disc appeared around 6:11
-- after 3rd contact at 6:04.
6:14:34 DSCF0047**.JPG 6:14:34 DSCF0047**.JPG copy
6:17:06 DSCF0050**.JPG 6:17:06 DSCF0050**.JPG copy
6:17:16 DSCF0051**.JPG 6:17:16 DSCF0051**.JPG copy
6:17:33 DSCF0052**.JPG 6:17:33 DSCF0052**.JPG copy

In each closeup (see the full images) a small notch can be seen in the limb of the Sun, on the right -- just below center; that would be Venus. It finally cleared the Sun's disk by about 6:25.

Images of the Sun were taken using a Fuji FinePix S5000 with 22x zoom. Settings: ISO 200, f/9, 1/250s; the filter was two sheets of mirror window film -- about 4 magnitudes of attenuation.


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Created June 11, 2004; last modified March 19, 2021
Send comments or suggestions to James Pierce - james.pierce@mnsu.edu