Thursday, June 7, 2012

Venus Transit

From our backyard with our homemade viewer we were able to capture the silhouette of Venus during its transit across the sun.


Then we attended a free Transit of Venus event at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort where various activities and telescopes were set up


and cultural astronomer Richard Poss gave an interesting lecture.




I thought this little wooden "Sunspotter" telescope was really neat.  It uses a system of three mirrors and two lenses inside a triangle that can rotate on the semicircular base.

     

The image projected onto white paper was clear and easy to view.
These are reflections of the event on windows and a screen which had live video feed from NASA:


Back home again, we took a picture through a filter:


The next transit of Venus will be in 2117.

See more sky posts from around the world at Skywatch Friday.
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28 comments:

  1. angryparsnipJune 7, 2012 at 12:08 PM

    I didn't know about the Ventana event. I would have gone. What a wonderful way to see Venus.

    You were able to get some great photos !

    cheers, parsnip

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  2. SteffiJune 7, 2012 at 12:48 PM

    Fantastic photos for SWF!It was a spectaculary event to watch this Venus transit!
    Thank you for sharing and have a nice weekend!

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  3. UnknownJune 7, 2012 at 12:54 PM

    Interesting sequence!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  4. tobyJune 7, 2012 at 12:55 PM

    Great shots! We also saw the big event, but we did *not* have such a fancy sunspotter thing! That's fantastic!

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  5. AnonymousJune 7, 2012 at 12:58 PM

    It was too hazy for decent shadow progection viewing in my part of Southern California so I watched the many views from around the world on SLOOH with commentary and amazing views from Hawaii,Prescott AZ and Norway.
    The event you attended sounds great and what a great little viewer that is!
    The Transit of Venus was an awesome event and I am so glad so many or us think so!

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  6. SalitypeJune 7, 2012 at 1:22 PM

    simply amazing that you were able to do that !

    aligaga

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  7. Ellen, NorwayJune 7, 2012 at 1:50 PM

    I was also that lucky :) But I did see it from my home at night (01.00 am), in northern Norway (the midnightsun). I had three pairs of sunglasses and a little telescope :)And it was AMAZING!! ..and I forgot to take a picture.. :(

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  8. eileeninmdJune 7, 2012 at 2:21 PM

    Cool, thanks for sharing. A neat thing to experience. Happy skywatching!

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  9. DarlaJune 7, 2012 at 3:15 PM

    SO cool -- thanks for sharing!

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  10. JimJune 7, 2012 at 3:18 PM

    Brilliant!
    Sydney - City and Suburbs

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  11. KarenJune 7, 2012 at 3:29 PM

    Cool!

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  12. Icy BCJune 7, 2012 at 4:59 PM

    Wow..amazing! Looks like one of the best events to attend.

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  13. betchaiJune 7, 2012 at 5:17 PM

    beautiful pictures, Diane. happy for you were able to witness the event, i love the different shadow images and your pictures from the backyard are spectacular too.

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  14. Betsy Banks AdamsJune 7, 2012 at 6:34 PM

    Awesome, Diane... You witnessed history!!!!! Love it... My son would have loved to have attended that lecture. He loves astronomy and would have enjoyed seeing that special little telescope... Neat!!!!!

    Thanks for sharing.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  15. StephanieJune 7, 2012 at 7:18 PM

    You have an incredible site to see Venus. It must have been an awesome experience and learning as well. Have a great weekend!

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  16. Martha ZJune 7, 2012 at 8:54 PM

    It sounds like you had a great time at the transit. These events bring strangers together to for a community for a brief time.
    I like that sunspotter.

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  17. MagpieJune 7, 2012 at 10:11 PM

    I'm glad I got to see your pictures, because I missed the opportunity and I sure won't be around for the next one. :)

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  18. rainfield61June 7, 2012 at 11:11 PM

    The Venus is also a passer by.

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  19. ZielonaMilaJune 8, 2012 at 1:13 AM

    Nice photographs, an interesting piece of documentary. I am greeting

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  20. Stewart MJune 8, 2012 at 2:53 AM

    Nice picture – I had a good look, but no pictures. Better luck next time I suppose? Well, maybe not when I think about it!

    Stewart M - Australia

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  21. BarbJune 8, 2012 at 5:27 PM

    Im enjoying your photos - I missed it here in CO.

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  22. RamakrishnanJune 9, 2012 at 9:38 AM

    Amazing pics of Venus transit.

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  23. Spare Parts and PicsJune 9, 2012 at 12:56 PM

    Very nicely captured! Thanks for this post.

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  24. JanieJune 9, 2012 at 1:33 PM

    I like the little Sunspotter. You got some good captures of a rare event!

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  25. LoreeJune 10, 2012 at 1:19 PM

    That last photo is wonderful. It must have been awesome to see it 'live'.

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  26. TeresaJune 10, 2012 at 9:08 PM

    thanks for sharing! astronomy has always intrigued me.

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  27. ThérèseJune 11, 2012 at 11:09 AM

    So cool! What an experience!
    2117... We'll be watching from somewhere else...

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  28. LindyJune 12, 2012 at 9:35 PM

    What a great experience you had being able to attend the event at Loews, and then getting your own images, too! We watched it on the computer, through slooh.com, which was better than not getting to experience it at all. Sure wouldn't mind having one of those Sunspotter telescopes. ;-)

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