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iss transit of venus

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presented by science at nasa

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in 1768 when james cook sailed out of

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plymouth harbor to observe the transit

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of venus in tahiti the trip was

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tantamount to a voyage through space

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the remote island had just been

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discovered a year earlier and by all

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accounts it was as strange and alien to

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europeans as the stars themselves

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cook's pinpoint navigation to tahiti and

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his subsequent observations of venus

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crossing the south pacific sun in 1769

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have inspired explorers for centuries

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one of those explorers is about to beat

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cook at his own game

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high above the earth astronaut don

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pettit is preparing to photograph the

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june 5th transit of venus from space

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itself

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i've been planning this for a while says

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pettit who serves as flight engineer

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onboard the international space station

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i knew the transit of venus would occur

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during my rotation so i brought a solar

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filter with me when my expedition

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blasted off for the iss in december

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2011.

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because transits of venus come in pairs

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that occur once every 100 years or so

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humans have rarely had the chance to

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photograph the apparition from earth

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much less from earth orbit

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the expedition 31 crew will be the first

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men in history to see a venus transit

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from space

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and pettit will be the first to

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photograph one says mario runko jr of

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the johnson space center

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runco an astronaut himself who flew

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aboard three shuttle missions is an

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expert in the optics of spacecraft

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windows

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along with his wife susan ranco who was

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the coordinator for astronaut

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photography at jsc

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mario is helping pettit gather the best

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possible images of the transit

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pettit will be pointing his camera

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through the side windows of the space

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station's cupola an esa built

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observatory module that provides a

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wide-angle view of earth and the cosmos

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its seven windows are used by the crew

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to operate the station's robotic arm

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coordinate space stockings and take

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science grade photos of the earth and

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sky

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it's also a favorite hangout for

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off-duty astronauts who find the view

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exhilarating

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for this transit don will be removing

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the non-optical quality internal

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protective window panes known as scratch

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panes which really make crisp sharp and

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clear images impossible says runko

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this is a huge plus when it comes to

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details that will be seen in the imagery

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of the sun

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pettit describes the camera system

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i'll be using a high-end nikon d2xs

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camera and a 1200 millimeter lens with a

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full aperture white light solar filter

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even with this great camera system the

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images would be quite soft if the

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scratch panes were not removed notes

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ronko

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this is only the third time that we will

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be shooting through the cupula's optical

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quality windows

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i am hoping this becomes routine in the

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future

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this month's transit is the bookend of a

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2004 to 2012 pair

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astronauts were on board the iss in 2004

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but they did not see the transit mainly

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because they did not have solar filters

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on board

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tiny venus covers a small fraction of

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the solar disk so the sun is still

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painfully bright to the human eye even

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at mid transit

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pettit's foresight to bring a solar

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filter with him makes all the difference

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how would cook feel about all this

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i don't think james cook would be too

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envious says runko

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after all he did get an all-expense paid

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trip to tahiti out of the deal

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don's photos will be rapidly posted to

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the web during the transit

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for links to the historic webcast which

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begins on june 5th at approximately 3 pm

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pacific daylight time