Topic: Viewing the 2012 transit of Venus (June 5-6)
Philip Member
Posts: 5952 From: Brussels, Belgium Registered: Jan 2001
posted 02-24-2012 07:56 AM
I know collectSPACE has a strong bunch of amateur astronomers among its forum-members.
The next transit of Venus will occur on June 5–June 6 in 2012.
A transit of Venus occurs when the inner rocky planet Venus passes in front of the Sun as seen from the Earth. This happens at intervals of approximately 121 years, 8 years, 121 years, etc.
Transits of Venus were observed in 1639, 1761 and 1769, 1874 and 1882 and in 2004. After 2012, mankind will have to wait until 2117 to see another one.
spaceman1953 Member
Posts: 953 From: South Bend, IN Registered: Apr 2002
posted 02-25-2012 02:36 PM
WOW! I well remember getting up really early and going out to Art Klinger's Mishawaka PHM Planetarium where he and his people set up an extensive, local viewing opportunity with experts coming from far and wide and bringing their telescopes for the public to view through.
It was a thoroughly impressive morning. The experts took time to talk to and answer questions of the "kids" that were there and there were many. What impressed me the most, was that none of them had to do all that! There were some mighty impressive instruments there and I am not talking about size!
I never dreamed that another transit would be coming this soon. It was that impressive of an astronomical event! Thanks for the advance warning!
AJ Member
Posts: 511 From: Plattsburgh, NY, United States Registered: Feb 2009
posted 02-25-2012 06:03 PM
Here is an excellent website for determining what time and how much of the transit you can see from your location (or any other you choose to enter).
Dan Lorraine Member
Posts: 373 From: Cranston, R.I. Registered: Nov 1999
posted 02-26-2012 04:23 PM
I was so fortunate to see the transit in 2004 and I am planning on viewing it from Arizona this year. I have already shipped out several telescopes to a friends house to be able to view and photograph this event.
Regarding the photo below: This is third contact when the limb of Venus touches the edge of the sun's disc as it starts to emerge from the transit. Please note the "optical illusion" of a tear drop affect... this is not real, just an illusion obviously! But very interesting.
Fezman92 Member
Posts: 1031 From: New Jersey, USA Registered: Mar 2010
posted 02-26-2012 04:37 PM
I will have to remember to see this.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42981 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 06-05-2012 02:14 PM
Astronaut Don Pettit is about to become the first human to witness and photograph a transit of Venus from space. His images and comments will be streamed to Earth during the crossing.
AJ Member
Posts: 511 From: Plattsburgh, NY, United States Registered: Feb 2009
posted 06-05-2012 07:12 PM
Had a great time watching part of the transit earlier this evening and got a few photos.
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3118 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 2331 From: Sturgeon Bay, WI Registered: Jan 2000
posted 06-06-2012 04:48 PM
Again, any kind of Astronomy in Seattle has been cancelled until further notice. It's been about 3 years now, someday we'll get a good night - maybe. *sigh*
328KF Member
Posts: 1234 From: Registered: Apr 2008
posted 06-06-2012 06:57 PM
Luckily, here in the Baltimore area, the clouds cleared just as things were getting started. My daughter at almost age 10 has taken an interest in astronomy and just a few weeks ago had me take her to a presentation at a local college on space telescopes. I actually learned alot!
Anyway, while we were there the astronomy club had a display outside with a big reflector telescope and they were giving away those special glasses to view the sun with. They were all excited about "The Transit" coming up and while I like astronomy, I didn't quite grasp what the big deal was.
Well, come Tuesday, I was really surprised, with the use of those glasses, how much more impressive this event was to witness than I had previously thought. I shared those with some of my neighbors and we were all surprised how clearly visible the disc of Venus was even without magnification.
Then I got a bright idea...and the dumbest idea I ever had. I got my binoculars out. Hey, with these ultra-sunproof glasses on, why not take a look close up? Well we did...all of us, and it was even more spectacular. Almost three dimensional as compared to the flat view you saw on TV. We could even see the sunspots in other areas of the sun's disc.
Now you remember when you were a kid a used a magnifying glass to focus sunlight on, say, a leaf? It eventually smoked and burned a hole through the leaf right? Was I thinking of this while viewing this once in a lifetime experience through my binoculars?
No.
All of the sudden, while I was taking a turn using them, things got real bright. Folks, don't ever do this. I managed to melt two tiny holes in those "welder's glasses" which could well have done the same thing to my eyeballs. In hindsight, it is totally obvious, but in the excitement of the moment nobody, and I mean of a good group of adults with children, thought of the possibility.
Fortunately, it seems no permanent damage was done. The exposure was incredibly brief. I have been using telescopes since I was a kid, and would never dream of looking directly at the sun with one. Just please be aware of the warnings that you hear repeated everytime an eclipse or something similar comes up, and think about how you might fall into an inadvertent trap like this.
The transit was indeed a spectacular sight. I'm glad my daughter and my neighborhood got to share the event. But I also learned a valuable lesson.
spaceman1953 Member
Posts: 953 From: South Bend, IN Registered: Apr 2002
posted 06-06-2012 10:49 PM
Once again, we were lucky here in Northern Indiana, even though it is not winter, we had a few intermittent clouds, but viewing was good.
Also, once again, our own Art Klinger, at the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation Planetarium headed up a team to put on a spectacular event with the "Public is Welcome" sign out!
We are truly blessed to have someone of his calibre/caliber in our area. He knows people and can call in whatever favors he needs to, to put on a spectacular viewing event. You can find a lot of what was going on in Northern Indiana at the TROVE site, if you have not been there already.
Thanks, most sincerely, to him and his team for yesterday.
Dan Lorraine Member
Posts: 373 From: Cranston, R.I. Registered: Nov 1999
posted 06-10-2012 10:00 AM
These photos were taken from Chino Valley, AZ. This is the last view that we had of the setting sun (approximately 7:20 p.m. PST) as it slipped behind "Mary's Mesa" and created this nice "artsy" image).
These photos were taken through a 4" Celestron refractor using an Orion glass solar filter, 24MM Panoptic eyepiece, and an inexpensive ($100) Nikon Coolpix camera that was just held up to the eyepiece by hand.
I have attached several other images taken with the same equipment during the transit.
Glint Member
Posts: 1040 From: New Windsor, Maryland USA Registered: Jan 2004
posted 06-10-2012 01:31 PM
I'm on TDY and Denver. A few shots I took during the transit from Colorado are posted here. Included are a couple red/cyan 3-D anaglyphs.
I didn't want to take any chances for clouds downwind from the Rocky Mountain cloud machine, so I headed westward to Glenwood Springs in the afternoon.
413 is in Member
Posts: 628 From: Alexandria, VA USA Registered: May 2006
posted 06-10-2012 03:46 PM
quote:Originally posted by Dan Lorraine: This is the last view that we had of the setting sun (approximately 7:20 p.m. PST) as it slipped behind "Mary's Mesa" and created this nice "artsy" image).
That's really a great photo. The best ground-based photo of this event I've seen thus far.