(ORDO NEWS) — An amazing astronomical event happened this week. Venus is as close to the Earth at the time of sunrise. But even more surprisingly, when the paths of celestial bodies converged, astronomers were able to observe a sparkling ring of fire looming against the backdrop of a dazzlingly beautiful sky.
Capturing Venus so close to the sun is an extremely difficult task. Such a passage is difficult to observe for obvious reasons: the nearby Sun can fry camera sensors, burn out optical coatings and cause the lens to peel off, not to mention visual observation.
Skilled observers who accepted the “Venus Challenge” used accurate tracking and took steps to hide and protect the optics. Telescopes were not affected during the shooting of Venus this week. Amateur astronomer Sharin Ahmad successfully introduced Venus from his rooftop observatory in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and broke his own record on Tuesday June 2 when he caught Venus only 2 degrees and 48 ′ from the Sun.
The obtained images really attracted public attention: the sickle-shaped horns of Venus extended along a pearl-white ring around the disk of the Sun. The history of observations of the “ring of Venus” dates back to December 1842, when a certain Mr. Guthrie, a British astronomer, captured this event.
One of the descriptions of this elusive phenomenon was described by astronomers G.N. Russell and Z. Daniel from the Princeton University Observatory in the book of V. Corliss, “The Moon and the Planets: A Catalog of Astronomical Anomalies”:
“On November 29, 1906, Venus was approximately 1 degree 49 ′ (!) From the center of the Sun, which was possible to observe with the 5-inch finder of a 23-inch telescope. At moments when the air was stable, the complete outline of the planet was clearly visible. When a full circle was visible, the space inside it always seemed a little darker than outside.”
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