Venus Transit (Full Disk)

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured Venus as it crossed in front of the Sun on June 5th and 6th, 2012. The images were collected by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, designed to study oscillations and the magnetic field at the solar surface.

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  Science & Technology

[denwomfg]

The Sun will 'rotate' throughout the transit as the Earth rotates, so the transit will seem to go in a 'u' shape. Maybe that's what you saw?

[John Hughes]

paralax might account for some of the perceived deviation . . . but there's a lot to account for, probably more than paralax.

[therealnightwriter]

Interesting. Maybe it's just an artifact of the angle between us, Venus and the surface of Sun. The position of the apparent shadow, or back side of Venus would depend on that. Maybe. :)

[John Hughes]

I'm just an amature, so this may be a stupid question . . . I thought that the transit would be a straight path across the face of the sun, yet I noticed what appeared to be a curved path. I placed a straight edge on my computer screen, putting the edge at the bottom of venus when it began and ended it's transit (try it). The planet should have then traveled along the top of the straight edge (assuming a linear path), but it drifts away in the middle of the transit. What caused the drift?