Luckily the clouds are breaking just often enough to catch further glimpses of Venus’s Transit. To think that this celestial event was responsible for Australia being discovered by James Cook when he sailed south to view the transit in 1769.
James Cook’s voyage to view this transit was part of an attempt to measure the distance of the Earth from the Sun and even gauge the size of our Solar System.
It’s going to be an interesting day with the cloud coming and going. However, it has been sighted! Not bad for a pair of crappy, old binoculars.
In Sydney, on June 6th between 8:16 AM and 2:44 PM (and at other times all over most of the world) we will be (cloud willing) be able to witness the Transit of Venus. This is a rare event where Venus will pass between the Sun and the Earth. It occurs twice within an 8 year interval then not again for 100 years. The next transit will not be until 2125!
Venus will cross the path of the sun appearing as a small black dot.
More Information here:
http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/transit-of-venus-6-june-2012/
When will the transit be visible in your part of the world?
http://www.transitofvenus.nl/wp/where-when/local-transit-times/
DO NOT attempt to look at the sun with the naked eye, sun glasses, welding glasses or similar. Use only approved eclipse glasses and filters for your telescopes if you are going to directly view the transit. Serious eye damage may occur if you do not do this.
Another safe way to view the transit is by projecting the sun through a telescope of a good pair of binoculars onto a white card or similar.
There are many web sites showing you how this can be SAFELY done. Links are posted below.
http://www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/safety.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7Q925aYJMKU
I have made a basic rig which I have tested and have on standby just in case the clouds part for long enough on Wednesday (based on the latest weather reports) to catch a glimpse of the transit.
Here is the make shift rig I assembled based on one of the videos online. I am using an old pair of binoculars, held steady with a tripod. The white card is held in place with an old, photographic copy stand. I am lucky I had this as it saved a lot of engineering. The binoculars are projecting onto a piece of white foam-code board.
Once the image of the sun has been focused onto the card I simply photograph the reflected image. The image then takes some correction on Photoshop to correct for the angle and to add some contrast and clarity.
Here is a test image taken earlier in preparation. You can actually see sun spots!
The weather forecast for Sydney (as in cloud cover) is not good for today, June 6th! Let’s hope we get just a little break in the clouds. Having said that as I look out my window I can see a rainbow. I hope that is a good omen 🙂
More to come…
Let it not be said that landscape photography is the only genre I am interested in. As a wee lad I was always fascinated with the small. Given that my favourite nature documentaries were those that contained insects and spiders, it was inevitable that I would turn photographic interest to the same.
I have recently added a new Macro Photography category to seanmisso.com which I am starting to grow. Full size images and information can be found there. Hope you enjoy them.
Arachnophobes have been warned!
It’s been well overdue. The humble Sean Misso gallery has had a revamp. I have taken an interesting path and really toned down the overall design to allow the focus to be on the images rather than the site design.
To this end the images in each category are now easier to view, using a JavaScript “slide show” script that allows you to see a large scale image that will fill the screen if you wish. Simply click the image to enlarge.
Well, it’s been a while now since our Great Ocean Road holiday has come to an end. We could have easily spent another two weeks there (and more) exploring all the visual opportunities the stretch of road has to offer.
The images posted on this blog during our trip were fairly raw and frankly underwhelming. The image compression this blog platform utilises strips all the good stuff out.
The properly treated images from our trip have now been added to the Sean Misso Gallery www.seanmisso.com and sorted into the various categories as appropriate
Another big attraction of the Great Ocean Road is not actually the coast. It is the beautiful Otway’s!
The first time we came here we swore we would be back, better equipped and with more time to do the Otway’s Justice. Well that’s a laugh as there is so much to see in the Otway’s, one could spend months here exploring and photographing. There are a plethora of waterfalls and rainforest walks that have to be experienced to be appreciated. Without a doubt the most beautiful rainforest walk I have ever done is the walk to Beauchamp Falls (not one of the easiest, but so worth it).
Our GOR trip is sadly nearing its end. In one way I wish we could spend months here, but I also can’t wait to get back to Sydney and get some of the images printed!
I think it’s interesting that the poster rocks for Victoria’s Great Ocean Road are the 12 Apostles. The stretch of road around Peterborough through to Port Campbell and beyond is littered with beautiful coastal rock formations. Louise and I had some field days exploring the many interesting coastal features along this stretch.
It is certainly not hard to understand how this coastline is shaped once you have visited here. The relentless wind and surf are perfect tools for artisan nature!
Canon 5DII is performing admirably. I have to admit I don’t miss loading film into my medium format Mamiya with frozen fingers!
We have just been hitting the Otway National Park while we are based in Lorne.
More to come.
Look out Victoria, Sean & Louise are back. This September we will be hitting the bitumen and revisiting a beautiful stretch of Victoria’s coastline and hinterland. Apart from a much needed holiday, this will be the first serious field use of the new Canon kit.
I am hoping to post a progress of our trip both in words and images on this blog. Only a few days to go Woo Hoo!
For those close to me you may know that Film has been my medium of choice for landscape photography ever since I started shooting it. Sadly, the medium format Mamiya 7II and its beautiful lenses that have served me so well are now taking a back seat to a new Canon 5D MarkII and some L Series Lenses.
This seems a strange move for me given that when I examine a 6x7cm transparency/negative under a Magnifying Lupe on my light box, my jaw drops. The sheer quality and detail present would rival and beat some of the best digital sensors in modern cameras.
Very few labs if any these days print from film in the traditional analogue technique needed to do these images justice. Transparencies/negatives are instead today digitally scanned then printed with modern digital machines. In my opinion this robs the medium format transparency of its innate quality and character. Good quality high resolution scanning can come close but is also very costly, as is the cost of buying medium format film. These factors and many others have made shooting with medium format film an indulgence not compatible with the status quo (sigh).
Thanks to an amazingly good friend who let me borrow her Canon 5D MarkII, I learned that provided you start with a good quality digital file, the end result through a completely digital process, ending on professional papers can produce a result equal to that of the medium format legacy.
The Canon 5D MarkII is a beautiful piece of kit. Its primary attributes are a larger (full frame) sensor than most other DSLR’s and 21 Megapixels of resolution. A recent 24” x 36” test print I got made from this beast was a great success! It showed lots of detail, and not a hint of digital artefact. My favourite lens for now is the 16-35 f2.8L which is producing some amazingly crisp results. Together, these form my new landscape kit.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love my Mamiya and I am sure it will be engaged when I feel the need to commune with the analogue world but here’s to a new era!
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