The June 8, 2004 transit was the first such transit to be observed in almost 122 years and only the seventh since the invention of the telescope in the 1600s. Radu Corlan captured this image June 8, 2004, in Bucharest, Romania. [See our Transit of Venus 2012: Complete Coverage Special Report.]
Dennis van Schelven took this image in Spijkenisse, The Netherlands on June 8, 2004. Transits of Venus occur in pairs eight years apart. The second event of the pair in the 21st century will take place this year — on Tuesday, June 5, as seen from the Western Hemisphere (Wednesday, June 6, from the Eastern Hemisphere).
The transit, or passage, of Venus across the face of the sun is one of nature's rarest celestial phenomena. This image was captured by P. M. Heden in Vallentuna, Sweden on June 8, 2004.
The start of the transit is marked by "first contact," when Venus's small inky disk first touches the Sun's edge and creates an almost imperceptible "dent" on the solar limb. This image was taken by Irene Komninou on June 8, 2004, in Iraklion, Crete, Greece.
This image of the Venus transit was taken by the VT-2004 team on June 8, 2004, in Rimavska Subota, Slovakia.
"Third contact" takes place when Venus's disk touches the other side of the solar limb, signaling the beginning of the end of the transit. This image was taken by Saverio Cammarata & Giuseppe Marino from Catanese, Italy on June 8, 2004.
"Third contact" takes place when Venus's disk touches the other side of the solar limb, signaling the beginning of the end of the transit. Maryam Nejatbakhsh of Akhtarvash Society, Iran took this image June 8, 2004.
This image was taken by Elio Daniele from Palermo, Italy on June 8, 2004.
Three views of Venus' solar transit in 2004, taken by NASA's sun-observing TRACE spacecraft. The top image is in visible light; the view on bottom left is in the ultraviolet, and the one on bottom right is in the extreme ultraviolet.
This image was taken by Huang Yi, Hu Yixing, Qu Yizhou, Qu Wenwen, Ge Zhiyuan, Wang Yichen, Qang Jinwie, Linlan Yi and Ye Fei on June 8, 2004, from Yingtan, P.R. China.
This image was taken by Jamie Cooper from Northampton, UK on June 8, 2004.
This image was taken by Ralph Vandebergh from the Netherlands on June 8, 2004.
This image was taken by the Astronomical School of Odessa from Odessa, Ukraine on June 8, 2004.
The transit, or passage, of Venus across the face of the Sun is one of nature’s rarest celestial phenomena. This image was taken by John Thorpe from Perth, Australia on June 8, 2004.
Vaclav Priban took this image of the the transit, or passage, of Venus across the face of the sun in Prague on June 8, 2004.
Photographers Michael Fraser and Alex Farrell saw the first 2.5 hours of transit at Penwortham, Australia (33° 55' S 138° 38' E) on a sunny winter afternoon before the sun set, June 8, 2004. Several telescopes, filters, welding glass, eclipse shades were used to capture the image, including a re-enactment of Horrocks & Crabtree in 1639 — a cheap refractor stopped down to 30 mm, with Barlow lens & Huygens eyepiece, projecting an image onto paper.
The June 8, 2004, transit was captured by Pavel Pasta in Zabreh, Czech Republic.
The June 8, 2004, transit of Venus was captured by John Boyd in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
The complete Venus transit was observed from the NASA "Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE)" mission in white light on June 8, 2004.
This image was taken by the Astronomical School of Odessa from Odessa, Ukraine on June 8, 2004.
This image was taken by the VT-2004 team on June 8, 2004, in Rimavska Subota, Slovakia.
An Airbus 320 (Paris-Madrid) passes exactly in front of Venus' disk near the moment of the second contact. This image was taken by Yannick Le Garrec from Cerny, France on June 8, 2004.
The photographer, Kosta Sterev, captured the Venus transit on the palm of his hand in Poole, England on June 8, 2004.
This image of the June 8, 2004, Venus transit was taken by Pencho Markishky in Shumen, Bulgaria.
This image is of the 2004 Venus transit seen through fog. It was taken by Mark Alsip from Richmond, Kentucky on June 8, 2004.
This image was taken on June 8, 2004, at the Observatorio de Cordoba Argentina by Raul Melia and Ivan Bustos Fiero.
The transit, or passage, of Venus across the face of the sun was seen by Giancarlo Ubaldo Nappi in Belo Horizante, Brazil on June 8, 2004.
This image is of the 2004 Venus transit, taken by Aleksandra Jasar Miklavcic & Kapler Sabina in Ljubljana, Slovenia on June 8, 2004.
Blaine Bittman took this image of the transit, or passage, of Venus across the face of the sun in Port Colborne, Canada on June 8, 2004.
A bird crosses the sun along during the 2004 Venus transit. This image was taken by Marek Marcinkowski from Pokowice, Poland.
This image of the June 8, 2004, transit of Venus was taken by Ferry Doerfel in Paderborn, Germany.
Photographer Peter Hughson took this image from his driveway in Brisbane, Australia on June 8, 2004, about 15 minutes before the sun went behind the clouds.
Henry Thackeray stands in front of an image of the June 8, 2004, Venus transit taken for school in Pretoria, South Africa by Francis Thackerey.
This image of the June 8, 2004, transit was taken by Luc Sarrazin in Marseille, France.
Photographer Nick King made this image consisting of 5 separate frames of a bird flying across the face of the sun during the Venus transit in the UK on June 8, 2004.
The June 8, 2004, transit was captured by the Sirius Astronomy Association in Algeria.
This image was taken by photographer Aleksander Shulevski from Macedonia on June 8, 2004.
The transit, or passage, of Venus across the face of the sun was captured by Irineu F. A. Filho in Campina, Brasil on June 8, 2004.
This image was captured by Marcin Filipek from Poland on June 8, 2004.
Florian Nehonsky took this shot of the Venus transit on June 8, 2004, in Vienna, Austria.
Ivan Eder took this photo at Polaris Observatory in Budapest, Hungary on June 8, 2004. Venus' atmosphere can be glimpsed very faintly surrounding the planet against the blackness of space.
Ralf Vandebergh captured this image of the Venus transit on June 8, 2004, from the Netherlands.
"Third contact" takes place when Venus's disk touches the other side of the solar limb, signaling the beginning of the end of the transit. Steven J. Rusnak took this image in Stuart, Florida on June 8, 2004.
Anne-Marie and Christophe Le Glatin of Berville-Sur-Mer, Normandie, France took this photo of the Venus transit on June 8, 2004.
Eugen Balan of Bucharest Astroclub captured this image from Ciorogarla, Romania on June 8, 2004.
Giovanni Paglioli took this image of the Venus transit on June 8, 2004 from Centro Astronomico Neil Armstrong in Salerno, Italy.
Red and blue colored edges around Venus' disc are caused by the wavelength-dependant refraction of light in Earth's atmosphere. This effect can clearly be seen when sky objects are observed close-up at low elevations. Venus' apparent height above the local horizon was 19.2° when this photo was taken. Herwig Ronsmans of Grimbergen, Belgium took this image June 8, 2004.
Ralf Vandebergh of The Netherlands captured this image June 8, 2004. Venus' atmosphere can be faintly glimpsed in this photo.
Michael Wilce of Central London, UK took 20 composite shots to create this image of the Venus transit on June 8, 2004.
Annah Brown captured this image at Lake Erie, Michigan on June 8, 2004.
Photographer Cees Bassa of Utrecht, The Netherlands took the first exposure to capture the leaves, then 6 shots through a solar filter at 4-min intervals on June 8, 2004. [See our Transit of Venus 2012: Complete Coverage Special Report.]
Skywatcher Mark H. Locey sent in this photo of the 2004 Venus transit.
