Astronaut Plans to be First to Photograph the Transit of Venus From Space

In a couple of short days, Don Pettit intends to do something that has never been done before: photograph the transit of Venus from space. The transit of Venus, a phenomenon where Venus appears as a small black dot crossing the plane of the sun, is a rare event that happens in pairs 8 years apart. The first of the current pair happen in 2004, and after June 5th we won’t be seeing Venus cross the sun again until the year 2117.

Pettit — who is preparing to shoot the event with his trusty Nikon D2Xs rig complete with 1200mm lens and white light solar filter — is a well-known astronaut/photographer and one whose work we’ve featured many times before on PetaPixel. So given the uniqueness of his upcoming photo op and the expertise of the photographer in question, we’re very interested in seeing the results. Be sure to check out the video for more info.

(via MSNBC)