Starship Asterisk*

A Venus Transit Music Video from SDO

Explanation: What's that black dot moving across the Sun? Venus. Possibly the clearest view of Venus crossing in front of the Sun last week was from Earth orbit. The Solar Dynamics Observatory obtained an uninterrupted vista recording it not only in optical light but also in bands of ultraviolet light. Pictured above is a composite movie of the crossing set to music. Although the event might prove successful scientifically for better determining components of Venus' atmosphere, the event surely proved successful culturally by involving people throughout the world in observing a rare astronomical phenomenon. Many spectacular images of this Venus transit from around (and above) the globe are being proudly displayed.

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Now that's just epic.

Oh WOW!, Venus looks so vulnerable and small moving across that incredible fiery maelstrom. These are simply the best views of a Venus transit ever in human history, all thanks to the SDO project! What an amazing video sequence; an awesome APOD! Thanks

Really a beautifully done APOD with all the tools being used to examine her atmosphere on display as well. Where the hell is Matt is pretty good too, with lots of evidence in it about the various cultures and places in this world. But just maybe this APOD is better, even though my son's name is Matt.

OMG! Did you notice those Happy People Dancing again!! Well the music APOD today was great! I really enjoyed it!

This music sounds almost nothing like Requiem for a Dream, which is a damn good thing, because I've heard the cringe-worthy poppy or techno beat remixes about a million times on various videos. Even remixed this far from the original, it could still make watching grass grow seem dramatic. Clint is one of my favorite composers, hands down. I wonder if he did this piece, too? It's not exactly clear to me whether he's being credited for this exact song or just Requiem for a Dream music in general.

I dont care about the muzic. The sun seems to be frightenly hot, and the venus is speeding pretty fast

How can your video be real? How can your supposed "disk of Venus" cross over the limb of the Sun, and we can see that limb, as well as surface features on the Sun itself, UNDER/BEHIND the disk! Unless Venus has suddenly become transparent, I think you're video is a falsehood!

JDC wrote:How can your video be real? How can your supposed "disk of Venus" cross over the limb of the Sun, and we can see that limb, as well as surface features on the Sun itself, UNDER/BEHIND the disk! Unless Venus has suddenly become transparent, I think you're video is a falsehood!

Chris Peterson wrote:

owlice wrote:From what I have read, this "transparency" may be a result of detector persistence; because the AIA detectors were continually awash in light from the sun, the detectors retained the previous image (similar, I think, to the old "ghosting" one might have seen on an old television immediately after it was turned off, or burn-in on an old computer monitor) of the surface of the sun as Venus eclipsed the disk. Detectors are refreshed when looking at blank sky or dark areas. It may be that some detectors are more sensitive or prone to this persistence, which may account for this showing up more in some tracks than in others.

What you are talking about is called residual bulk image, and it occurs in CCD detectors because some electrons (which are produced when photons are captured) are trapped in the bulk structure of the silicon, below the actual pixel layer. It can be a challenge to deal with in some cases. It's certainly an issue with almost all the cameras used professionally, both on the ground and in space. It is certainly a likely candidate for this ghosting.

If anyone has another explanation for this, please share; thanks!

I've seen some comments from the camera operators that this effect might be caused by some sort of readout crosstalk between the different camera channels. The image is apparently placed simultaneously on four different detector quadrants, through different filters.

Chris, Owlice, bystander...
Thanks.

I did have the visual experience JDC did. Wondered if it was a 'defect' in the mechanism, the transmission, the display...or possibly one of those persistence of vision things in human eyes.

I knew it wasn't a fake. You guys, or NASA, or Goddard would have done a much better job covering up, if it was. *L*

Why can't they be forwarded?

Just curious why in almost every transit sequence, the smooth motion of Venus frequently stops for a short time then jumps ahead - it appears jerky. Is it my computer's playback, or does everyone see it?

Stunning! Watched it over and over.

Mr_Ed wrote:Just curious why in almost every transit sequence, the smooth motion of Venus frequently stops for a short time then jumps ahead - it appears jerky. Is it my computer's playback, or does everyone see it?

Ed, my guess is that the jerkiness is caused by the fact that these are edited time-lapse videos.

The whole transit took over six hours. I watched the whole thing through my little 70 mm refractor with a white light filter by the beach in Ko'olina, Oahu, Hawaii. It was a very exciting and moving experience, but in real time it would be much too long for a youtube video.

This SDO video is really beautiful. I love the ultraviolet images that show Venus against the Sun's corona, before and after she crossed the photosphere, the face of the Sun that's visible in white light.

Did the intensity of the sun actually diminish slightly , measurably, to actually come to the conclusion there was an occultaion ?

Beautiful music and video! Watched it over and over today! Brings back the childlike wonder of looking at the stars and sky! Thank you for this experience.

Among the swooning, I'm glad to see just a few technical queries, especially that on the apparrent transparancy of Venus!

In the past, I've read that one problem of observing a transit was in determining the actual moment when Venus' disk was seen entirely within the Sun's. The two edges blurred, rather like the Vase effect seen at a terrestrial sunset. There seemed to be no sign of this in the video - was it an artefact of observation through the Earth's atmosphere, or else with a mere eye rather than a precison electronic instrument?

John

The Venus transit is one phenomeno very interesting.
The astronomers can to study the atmosphere of Venus
There are elements for to see beeter the exo-planets in others " Solar systems"

What a striking video! Those prominences looked reallyh cool under the different colors.

The music should have been John Philip Sousa's TRANSIT OF VENUS. I think it would have been more appropriate.

In the APOD for 6/11/2012 there is a video of the TOV in different wave lengths of light and it appears as though Venus is somewhat translucent. This is evident especially when it crosses over the edge of the sun you can plainly see the effect in the majority of the segments. This has stirred great debate amongst members of our Astronomy club. Everything from the whole event being a hoax orchestrated by NASA to solicit funding, to a photographic artifact, to something called an "after-image" caused by trapping of charge deep in the bulk substrate of the semiconductor, beyond the well of the pixel charges are not transferred out by the normal readout mechanism ("flushing"), but slowly diffuse to the surface where they produce ghost images from prior bright images. So I was wondering if anyone on this forum, or ideally someone from NASA/SDO could explain it.

Anxiously awaiting response, Vince Lannutti
Delaware Vally Amateur Astronomers

Also see here: http://sdoisgo.blogspot.com/2012/06/ven ... -last.html

I mis-attributed the music on this video. The producer of the video, Scott Wiessinger from SDO (NASA GSFC), emailed APOD to say that the correct attribution is "Dramatic Intro", a piece he found on stockmusic.net. The APOD has now been corrected, and I apologize for the mistake.
- RJN