Damage from zooming in on the sun?

In the next week Venus will be making a transit of the sun. http://transitofvenus.​org/june2012/where-to-be

I've got 2 questions. The first, will i even be able to see venus?

Second. Would pointing my sx40 directly at the sun at full zoom cause possible damage? Il have a ND8 filter on and be using the highest speed. I might over clock the shutter with CHDK if its still over expoosed @ 1/3200.

Thanks!

Yes it would, and not just "possible". An ND8 is hopelessly inadequate. You'd need about an ND 10,000 with an IR filter to get light (and heat) levels down to usable. Better would be to make up a pinhole camera obscura and photograph the resulting projected image. You, and your friends/family would also be able to see it safely that way.

Thanks mate!

Incredibly important post. Thanks Jon!

About the only thing to be said for using a PowerShot rather than a DSLR for this is at least you wouldn't be looking directly through the optics at at the sun; you'd only blind the camera, not yourself, by doing things wrong (unless you try using an optical viewfinder, should you have a camera with one, and that'd only be the G12 or G1x of the current lineup).

Here's my attempt while holding my best welder's lens over my Sx20. I enlarged and adjusted a little. Without additional enlargement, it was barely visible. If you can enlarge it even more, you'll see the sunspots in the center of the sun.