Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy snaps Venus just 5° away from Sun, risks eyesight

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy, who went viral for his images of the Sun, has another stunning picture in his portfolio but this time it is of the Earth’s neighbour Venus bathed in sunlight. The photographer said that this was 'the most dangerous shot' he has ever attempted as the Sun was just five degrees away from Venus and viewing into the camera could have destroyed his eyesight. Based in Arizona, McCarthy has been doing astrophotography for quite a while now and posts his planetary photographs on his Instagram handle under the name CosmicBackground. 

Detailing the image in his photo caption, McCarthy revealed that the incoming sunlight was so strong that he had to shield his telescope and camera by standing in front of them to create a shadow. "Venus was so close to the sun I had to stand in front of my telescope during capture to use my body’s shadow to protect the focused light from the sun from entering it as I captured. If I was attempting to see this visually, I could have easily blinded myself", the picture's caption read.

As you can see in the picture, Venus appears like a ring and the silhouette of its shaded surface is visible which, according to McCarthy, is because the light from the sun scatters in the planet's atmosphere. He further revealed that he started capturing Venus by pointing his telescope towards the sun with a filter so as to protect it from getting destroyed. He then removed the filter when he was sure that the sun's light wasn't in the frame. Owing to his 600 plus photographs on Instagram, he has gone viral several times for his work including the most detailed image of the Moon and the Sun. 

McCarthy's shot of the Sun

This particular picture shot by McCarthy attracted a lot of eyeballs as these were the first visuals showing the star of our solar system in the most detailed form. McCarthy had revealed that he stitched 1,50,000 individual pictures of the sun before producing the final image. Captured with a unique photography method, the final picture is 300 megapixels in size.

Image: Instagram/@cosmic_background