These pages were prepared principally by Steve Bell with the assistance of the other members of HM Nautical Almanac Office, Catherine Hohenkerk and Don Taylor. The picture on the right was taken at the UK Hydrographic Office during observations of the transit of Venus on 2004 June 8^th. The telescope, a 105-mm Meade ETX Maksutov-Cassegrain with a lunar and planetary imager (a CCD eyepiece) and solar filter, was being guided on the Sun at the time by Steve Bell in order to provide a live feed to a nearby lecture theatre. This allowed many staff and visitors to view the transit in complete safety.

More information is available on the RAL transit observation team.

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