The Transit of Venus

The Transit of Venus is composed of two consecutive, partial, time-lapse records of the Transit of Venus, when Venus passed across the Sun on June 8th 2004.
Transits of Venus are rare and currently occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits 8 years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. Before 2004 the last pair of transits of Venus were in December 1874 and December 1882. The second of the current pair will be on June 6th, 2012.
Although the film was shot with a very small aperture, reduced shutter opening and several layers of neutral density filter, resulting in a black sky, the sun nevertheless remains contrastingly dazzling, and Venus, consequently, is obliterated. These two short sequences are contextualized with data detailing the various technical parameters which determine the peculiarity of the image.