Many members of Metsähovi Radio Observatory's staff are keen amateur astronomers, and the 2012 Venus transit was an event not to miss. Cloudy weather made it a challenge to observe the "twice-in-a-lifetime" event, but a hunt for an opening in the clouds proved fruitful and allowed for relatively nice results. Copyright of the pictures below belongs to Niko Lavonen. Unauthorized copying or distribution of the images is prohibited.


During sunrise at about 04:00 local time in Otaniemi the weather was uncooperative:

So it was off toward the north and Vihti, where an opening in the clouds could be seen. A bus stop on a field clearing ended up providing an adequate observing spot:

Success! Finally the clouds lifted enough to reveal the Sun accompanied by Venus:

The evil cloud cover complicated the the observations, but on the other hand the clouds acted as a nice filter to allow using a super-zoom pocket camera for direct observing:

Close-up taken directly from the eyepiece of a TAL-1 newtonian reflector:

Not once did the cloud cover allow for a full view of the Sun's disk:



Very close to the third contact:



Past the third contact. Venus is now seen as being partly outside the Sun's disk. At this stage the clouds were getting thicker and the openings in them ever smaller.

Because of the thickening clouds, no more pictures could be obtained through the heavily filtered telescope. A digitally zoomed and cloud filtered picture from a super-zoom pocket camera will have to suffice:

Now the the show was very close to being over:

After Venus had left the Sun's disk, all there was left was to admire the idyllic courtyside scenery in Vihti and start heading home:







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