A Venus Transit Over the Baltic Sea

From Images 108

Waiting years and traveling kilometers- all to get a shot like this. And even with all of this planning, a good bit of luck was helpful. As the Sun rose over the Baltic Sea last Wednesday as seen from Fehmarn Island in northern Germany, photographer Jens Hackmann was ready for the very unusual black dot of Venus to appear superimposed. Less expected was the textures of clouds and haze that would taint different levels of the Sun various shades of red. And possibly the luckiest gift of all was a flicker of a rare green flash at the very top of the Sun. This image is one of many spectacular pictures taken last week of the last transit of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun for the next 105 years. (APOD)