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>> Hi, welcome back

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to the International Space
Station Flight Control Room,

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the Mission Control Center in
Houston where we have again

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with us today Mario Runco,
an astronaut who we talked

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with earlier in the week
about that Venus transit

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and all the exciting
activities that were going

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on in association with that.

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He's back to give us a report
on how everything went.

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Thanks for coming back, Mario.

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>> Well, thanks for having me.

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And it has been a
very exciting week,

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the response was just
tremendous around the world,

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and locally here in Houston,
in the United States.

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I was impressed with
Don's performance not only

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in the quality of some
of his images but also

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in the sheer quantity.

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And he's a good photographer,
and in attempting

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to get good images,
photographers know

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that they need to snap a lot
to get that one premier image

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that just captures it.

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In the way of numbers, we got
down, at least as far as I know

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at this point, at
least about 1800 images

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of the transit throughout
the course of the six hours

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that it took place, and Don
was not up the whole time,

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just to remember that.

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He -- at the start,
took some images

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of the first contacts,
and then quit.

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And then came back
later when the --

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Venus was more or
less in the middle

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of the Sun, at the center point.

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And then again later
on when the third

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and fourth contacts took place.

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So he was up for short periods
of time, discreet times,

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and I might add too, that
Don was not the only one

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snapping photos.

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He had employed the rest of the
crew, they were all up as well.

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Don't tell anybody in the
control center about that.

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And so they were
all taking pictures,

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all enjoying the moment,
the historical event,

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the moment in time, if you will.

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And then they --
Don sent me a note,

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he says he found himself single
ship again, they had all kind

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of quit and went to bed
an left the work to Don.

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>> But you know, his enthusiasm
is certainly catching.

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It seems like a lot of people
were very interested in this.

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I think a lot of people
went out and watched,

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at least for a few minutes.

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And it just seemed like
everybody across the country

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and probably even around the
world was paying attention.

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>> And that seems
to be the case.

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I know myself here in Houston,
I had several hundreds of pairs

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of the solar filter glasses,
and I started passing them out,

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and I quickly ran out,
and I didn't have enough,

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unfortunately, for
everybody that wanted some.

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So --

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>> I think we're seeing
here, there's a video

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from the solar dynamics
observatory of the actual event.

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>> And that was --
these were spectacular.

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They had some great
images of the context

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of the entire transit.

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We can see the different
filters on the sun to bring

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out different aspects
of it, behind Venus.

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And Venus, unlike the weather
in some places on Earth,

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cooperated very well,
and was right

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on time and exited on time.

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And we won't be talking
about this again

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for 121-and-a-half
years, unfortunately.

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But there is, by the way, just
as an aside, there's a transit

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of Mercury that's
not so far off.

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>> Oh really?

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Okay. Will that be kind of the
same thing to see, or different?

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>> Along the same lines, Mercury
is of course much smaller

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and so it's not as big, it
might be harder to discern.

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Those of you who use the solar
filter glasses for a direct look

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at the sun and not through
some alternative means,

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it was hard to pick out
Venus at the start and finish

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because it was so close to the
edge, and if you didn't know

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where to look you may
not have found it.

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And Mercury may be a little
more difficult than that.

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>> Okay. Well I know -- I think
we have some specific photos you

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wanted to be sure and show,

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so I think we can get the
first one of those now?

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>> Great. The photos --

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yeah, these are a couple of
photos that Don had taken.

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And these are quite
telling in that the one

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on the left is taken
not during the transit

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but through the scratch
pane window,

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that was the cupola window

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without the scratch
pane removed.

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And you can see how the sun
is very much washed out.

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The one on the right is during
the transit through window one.

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And it had the scratch
pane removed.

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So it was rather fortuitous that
we were able to accomplish that

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and get the scratch
pane removed.

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And the one on the right
you can actually start

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to see some sun spots
show up in the image.

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And this is with the
762 diameter filter

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that makes the image look
-- the orange tinge to it.

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And this is the same
sort of filter that is

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in the solar filter glasses
that we have, that's a filter

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that is put on the
front end of the camera.

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>> Okay, and here's
the second one.

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>> The second one, and this is

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with the white light mylar solar
filter that Don had taken up.

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Again, the one on the left is

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with the scratch panes
barely any sun spots visible.

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And again this was not
taken during the transit,

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so you won't see the
spot of Venus on there.

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The one on the right was
taken during the transit.

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However you can see
the sun spots

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that do show up in the image.

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For orientation purposes, the
one on the left you can see --

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maybe the viewers at
home can't see this.

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But the two sun spots in the
middle lower right are the same.

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But they're in a
different orientation

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because the images are
clocked a little differently.

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They're the same as the ones

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in the middle lower
right, on the right image.

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But clearly the scratch panes
removed gave us a substantial

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benefit in the clarity
of the photos.

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I think we have one
more, do we not?

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>> Yes, here it is.

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>> Okay, this is a third
one where you can see --

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the one on the left
was the previous one

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with the scratch pane on.

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The middle one is actually
one of the Russian windows.

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And we can see that in
the Russian windows,

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they're good quality
optical windows as well.

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The sun spots begin
to show up there.

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And then the third one was
the first 762 nanometer.

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I wanted to get a comparison

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as to what the two
different images looked

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like between the two
different filters for everyone.

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So it was quite a success,
not only in enthusiasm,

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number of images,
and I believe --

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we haven't had time
to go through all

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of the 1800 images
Don had sent down,

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in that I think he
actually caught Venus

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at the contact points
when it was tangent

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to the edge of the sun.

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Maybe we could show
those at a later date,

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or publish those on line.

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We're hoping to review those
and find those, the best.

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And some of those we
might each be able

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to see the black drop effect
from the atmosphere of Venus

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that Don had mentioned
in his video.

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So still more to be done, like
all missions, if you will,

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when we do experimentation
and collect data, the --

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it takes a much longer time
to review the data and plow

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through what you've
got than it does

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to actually do the
experiment itself.

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>> Right. And I know
you can continue to go

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to venustransit.nasa.gov
to see the photos

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that are already on line.

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Not just from the
International Space Station,

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but a number of different
sources.

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So a lot of good
information there.

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Again, it's
venustransit.nasa.gov.

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And before we wrap up I assume
you went out and watched

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for a little while yourself?

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>> Yes, I did.

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I wouldn't have missed it.

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I actually was in the
studio right before hand

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with the NASA edge group.

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And fortunately my timing was

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such that I was able
to go outside.

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And fortunately for
us here in Houston

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that the skies were
clear, very much so.

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So I had visibility and I used
a telescope with a camera,

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got some personal images of it.

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And had the solar
filter of course,

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all the safety things,
I can still see.

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And it was -- it was
just a moment in time.

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And I was thinking what might
have been in James Cook's mind

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when he was viewing
it in Tahiti in 1769.

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It was just a spectacular,
you know, singular moment

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that I won't forget,

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and hopefully many others
will not forget either.

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>> We talked a little
bit last time

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about how it's not necessarily
the same scientific significance

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as it meant for the
earlier transits,

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but still obviously a lot
of interest in the photos.

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You want [Inaudible]
captures people's imagination?

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>> I think it puts them
at points in time that --

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and connects them, if you
will, with the cosmos,

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that's a big statement, I
understand, but as, you know,

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we here on Earth, this small
planet, in the big picture

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of things, pretty much
insignificant in --

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compared to the rest of
the universe, and this --

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this sort of thing connects
us with the universe

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because it goes to time scales

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that are beyond the lifetimes
of us as individuals.

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>> All right.

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Well thank you again for
coming out both times,

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we really appreciate it, I think
a lot of people enjoyed it,

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and we will hope to hear more
about these sorts of events