Venus was just 7 days away from its solar transit when I took this photo with my Questar Duplex and an Imaging Source firewire camera at about 11 am from my suburban Milwaukee yard. It was nearly impossible to see Venus through the telescope's finder. I found it by first focusing on the sun, then dialing in the coordinates of Venus, THEN taking off the solar filter. It would not be safe to try and find it any closer than this.