Transit of Venus
There are a bunch of videos out there, showing 39-44 seconds of Venus traveling past Sol the other night. Here, however, is the official NASA vid, just over three minutes:
This entry was originally posted at http://filkertom.dreamwidth.org/1528207.html. You may comment there or here, although LJ tends to have a livelier conversation at this ( Read more... )
Click to viewThis entry was originally posted at http://filkertom.dreamwidth.org/1528207.html. You may comment there or here, although LJ tends to have a livelier conversation at this ( Read more... )
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Actually I was kinda hoping to put together some sort of jerky time-lapse from my photos, but thanks to the clouds and herding cats as an instructor, I'll be lucky to piece together a reasonable sequence showing its progress. Which is fine, since NASA did such an excellent job with this one.
And for everyone who missed the transit, all I can say is...
TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE 2017!!!!
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MAYBE EVEN WITH A CAMERA MOUNT AND A REAL CAMERA BY THEN
Also, I'm almost tempted to head to Cairns, Australia for a total eclipse this November. I haven't been there since 1986, before American tourists discovered it, so I'm afraid to see how it's changed, but it was a delightful place to visit back then. Great Barrier Reef, rainforest... friendly Australians... eclipse? Might be worth the trek.
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The day before the solar eclipse, I said, "Self, you're an idiot. You have a little backpacking telescope, and look, there's going to be a partial eclipse!" So I ran to a local store and got some special solar filter mylar (loose leaf, wtf) and constructed a cap for my wee telescope using a BUTTER TUB AND DUCT TAPE for great justice.
And it worked! Even better, about halfway through the eclipse when I finally figured out what settings to use on my point-and-shoot digital camera (not what one should use for astrophotography). I got photos of sunspots!
So, delighted with my new toy, I had to take it out again for Venus. I did not get many photos because I was being patient with a New Age Shaman who wanted to show me all her fairy tarot cards and drum and dance and do prayers while I was trying to sneak over and look at Venus, yo! but I still snapped a few good photos of Venus against the sun, with more sunspots. (I need to upload some to my own server; that site ( ... )
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http://peteralway.livejournal.com/685822.html
I carefully constructed the cap from black posterboard and transparent tape, using model rocket parachutes for the filter. In Michigan the sun set very soon after the eclipse started.
My transit pics are here:
http://peteralway.livejournal.com/691860.html
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