[TriLUG] OT: Transit of Venus (ToV)

[jonc at nc.rr.com]

---- Jeremy Portzer <jeremyp at pobox.com> wrote: 
> On 6/5/2012 8:04 PM, Glenn Hennessee wrote:
> > The Natural Science Museum for me.
> >
> > On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 6:44 PM, Chris Short<chris.short at gmail.com>  wrote:
> >> My weather forecasts all say partly cloudy which is good enough for
> >> me. As far as South Carolina goes I think there really isn't much to
> >> say other than lakes and coastal areas from my POV.
> >>
> >> The Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh and the Morehead
> >> Planitarium in Chapel Hill both have free events going on tomorrow for
> >> the Venus transit. I'll be attending the one in downtown Raleigh since
> >> I have no astronomy equipment whatsoever that's suitable for this
> >> event.
> >>
> I saw the transit in the morning here in Sydney, Australia.  We had a 
> view of all four contacts, but requiring viewing equipment at all 
> times.  I tried to view it with a pinhole camera (projector really) that 
> I built from a shoebox, and while it worked well to display an image of 
> the sun, I couldn't be sure whether I was really seeing the small dot of 
> the transit, or imagining things based on little bits of dust on the 
> projector "screen."  I still managed to attract attention from 
> passers-by however, holding a shoebox over my shoulder in the middle of 
> the city :)  It got a lot of news coverage here though, so most people 
> knew what I was up to I think.  There were official viewings at the 
> local observatories but they sold tickets and filled up fast.
> 
> Joseph, did you end up seeing it in SC?  The nice thing for you guys 
> about seeing it at sunset, is that you might have gotten a glimpse after 
> the sun was low enough in the sky to view directly without any equipment 
> (or just normal sunglasses).
> 
> --Jeremy
> -- 
I went to the local highschool parking lot (in Cary NC) and used my low power telescope as a projector. We got setup early and thought we had shmutz (dust and grease) on the lens... but when we rotated the telescope the shmutz stayed in the same place - Sunspots!
We spent an hour watching the transit from start till Venus was well inside the circle of the Sun - took pictures - posted them to Facebook, and adjourned for dinner!

Science Rules! 

Jon Carnes (and family)