We've seen some pretty incredible images of the Venus Transit come to light over the last couple of days, but this photograph — captured by astrophotographer Thierry Legault — may be the best yet.



At first glance, Legault's photo looks like many others of the transit; Venus appears in the form of a distinctive black disc, and a number of sunspots can be seen sprinkled across the Sun's face. But look closer and you'll notice something incredible. See those evenly spaced circles running diagonally across the image? They're meant to draw your attention to that almost invisible speck at the center of each one — that's the Hubble Telescope [click here for ultra hi-res version].

While you're letting that sink in, consider this: Thierry had to determine where on Earth he would have to be, and at precisely what time he would need to aim his camera skyward in order to capture the image — two conditions that led to his being in Queensland, Australia on the morning of June 6th.


There, at 11:42:25 local time, shooting at ten frames per second, he captured a total of nine images of Hubble as it zipped across the face of the Sun — a transit it made in just nine tenths of a second. Thierry didn't have a window of opportunity to capture this dual transit on film; he had a freaking peephole.

You can check out more of Thierry's stunning astrophotography — including a picture of the ISS in transit during a solar eclipse — on his website.


Images courtesy of, and with consent from, Thierry Legault