An astrophotographer risked going BLIND to take his most dangerous image to date of the planet Venus.

Andrew McCarthy, also known as @Cosmic_Background to his social media following, could have fried his own eyeball as he tracked the planet coming just five degrees from the sun.

He used a filter to help him plan the precise moment to expose the lens of his camera - and avoid trashing his telescope in the process.

Andrew said: “This is the most dangerous shot I’ve ever attempted.

“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.

“Any wrong move while attempting to find Venus could result in inadvertently letting the sun’s light into the scope, which would instantly ruin the camera I was using.”

Due to the planet’s position almost right in front of the sun, the light appears as a ring around Venus.

“The sun scatters in the atmosphere, making the silhouette of the shaded surface visible,” said Andrew.

“Ordinarily, photographing Venus is no more dangerous than photographing any of the other planets. It’s not dangerous at all,

“But on this particular day, the planet was less than 5 degrees away from the sun, which meant the slightest mistake and the sun’s light could reach focus within the telescope, which would be a disaster.

“My telescope was unfiltered and pointed dangerously close to the sun, at a target I was unable to see until it was in frame.”

To mitigate the risks involved, Andrew, from Arizona, USA, spent time planning a careful approach to taking the incredibly dangerous photograph:

He said: “I started by pointing the telescope at the sun using that filter, which allowed me to precisely sync my telescope’s position with the computer in the mount that controlled it.

“By then telling it to slew to Venus’s position, I was able to ensure I wouldn’t need to slew around hunting for the planet and accidentally have the sun’s light fry my camera.

“Once I was sure the sun’s light wasn’t in frame, I removed the filter to observe the planet.

“It wasn’t without its own challenges, and it took me a few tries before I was able to get the planet centred in the field of view, but it felt like the safest way to do this.”

The astrophotographer even made a video showing the effects of direct sunlight into a telescope - by scorching a piece of wood in just a few seconds.

Andrew McCarthy has become world famous for his amazing images of the solar system which he shares with thousands of followers on his @Cosmic_Background social media pages.

From comets at their closest passing of the Earth, to the most detailed images of the surfaces of the Moon and the Sun, the dedicated photographer spends hours upon hours gazing through his telescope

ENDS