Venus transit - images from swedish telescope

I've actually just nipped outside for a look, with some binoculars and a pad of paper (shining the light down the binoculars onto the pad, not peering at the sun through them :D )

Venus is clearly visible. It's very nice to get to see something so rare. Given that it's only the seventh time this has happened since telescopes were invented, I felt that I was part of a pretty select group. Although having said that, I should imagine that more people are seeing it this time round than have seen it in total from the earlier appearances.
 
Bloody transit... hmph.

I was looking forward to it... then it RAINED all day! :( :( :(
 
We just set up a telescope in a KS4 lesson, and got a pretty good view. It's just as small black circle, but is cool to think it's Venus.

Although the bloody kids whinged about the 'dessicating' 28.C temperature. They breed them weak over 'ere...

:D

Athon
 
Zeplette and I stood out in the front yard - it faces West - the transit happened in the afternoon in a cloudless clear sky here in Sydney :p. I used my my little binoculars I take to the cricket and a sheet of A4 paper. We got a nice clear image of the sun about 5cm across and there, quite clearly, was the little dot of Venus making its way in transit. Simple science - nice result. Zeplette was very pleased to say she had seen it first-hand. Scientific enthusiasm plus! Kewl!
 
My neighbor has a 5-inch reflector with a sun filter (semi-major astronomy and space-flight fan) and we set it up on the sidewalk in front of his house at about 7:00 am US Eastern time. Discovered it was a great way to meet women walking their dogs in the morning. Of course we're both married, so...

It was pretty cool, not so much for the show itself (wasn't like Venus was doing dipsy-doodles in the sky), but just for the sheer idea that we're watching something so rare, from 30 million miles (or so?) away, and that this is something that scientists can predict with such certainty, regularity, and exactitude. If you're in the area, the only way you WON'T see it is if there are clouds. No excuses.

That's the difference between real science and woo-woo - testable predictions.
 
It could be worse I guess, at least I didn't spend years preparing, then traveling thousands of miles only to be clouded out. And I wasn't shipwrecked on the way home.
 
I caught an hour of the transit this morning. In the best circumstances, I'd have only caught the last two hours of the transit. The sun rose out of a cloud bank and then went behind some other clouds before the end of the transit. I got an hour of videotape though (B&W, about 225x, white light solar filter).
 
venusmap.jpg



I had the telescope ready and everything. Bummer.
 
Hmm, you're almost directly due East of me, MummyMonkey!

I just missed the thick part of that cloud - it wasn't completely cloud-free, but good enough. In fact, it added to the experience, I think, to see the clouds blowing across the sun on my little projection :)
 
Weather was promised to be cloudy but got better near the end of the transit, I so regret I didn't bring my binoculars to work. I guess I will have to make do with images like:
 
I missed it too due to the weather as well, which is usually the case with rare astronomical events here in Scotland.

As a matter of fact, so often is the weather bad when I want it to be good for something astronomical that using planentary orbital events like this we can essentially calculate it's going to be cloudy that day several hundred years in advance. ;)
 
wipeout said:
I missed it too due to the weather as well, which is usually the case with rare astronomical events here in Scotland.

As a matter of fact, so often is the weather bad when I want it to be good for something astronomical that using planentary orbital events like this we can essentially calculate it's going to be cloudy that day several hundred years in advance. ;)
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Tell that to Guillaume Joseph Hyacinthe Jean-Baptiste Le Gentil de la Galaisiere

From the article (registration may be required):

The French had their share of troubles, too. The most pathetic of these were suffered by Guillaume Joseph Hyacinthe Jean-Baptiste Le Gentil de la Galaisiere. He was aiming for Pondicherry, a French colony in India, but he learned before arriving that it had been captured by the British. When the transit occurred, he was stuck on a pitching ship in an imprecisely known location, rendering his observations worthless. Undeterred, he decided to wait for the 1769 transit. He spent eight years on various Indian Ocean islands before making his way to Pondicherry, which had by then been returned to the French. On the day of the transit, however, it was cloudy. He then contracted dysentery, was shipwrecked, and finally returned home to find his estate looted.
Click to expand...
 
mummymonkey said:
I had the telescope ready and everything. Bummer.
Click to expand...

Same here. Actually, there were about 10 minutes when the Sun could be seen through the clouds, but at the same time it was raining so hard that I couldn't even open the window..
 
LOL @ boooeee's post :D

Yeah, I know some people have it worse, but that guy takes it to a whole new level. :D
 
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