Towering transit of Venus

OK, look, I know I’ve posted a lot of Venus Transit pix, and it’s been a week now, so you have to know I wouldn’t post one this late unless it was really awesome.
I present to you really awesome… Part 1:

Wow! This was taken by friend-of-the-BABlog Alan Friedman. To shoot this video he used a filter that lets through light from hydrogen, and that shows lots of solar activity like sunspots and filaments. The video is a negative, which makes it easier to see faint details on the surface, and which makes Venus look white instead of black. But I like how he kept his telescope centered on the Sun as it set, so it looks like it’s the tower moving into the field of view instead of the usual shot of the horizon held steady while the Sun sets. Very cool.
But he did more than take video: he took his usual jaw-dropping, stunning, ridiculously cool photos as well, like this one… really awesome, Part 2:

[Click to ensolarnate.]
Yegads. He’s done some photographic trickery to bring out details — he made the Sun’s face negative like ...