I just read about this in the US Astronomy magazine. It would be good to organise a transit event if its visible in the UK. Won't be another for a century!
Duncan,
I think this is only visible from the Pacific region. :(
Tony G
It's not supposed to be visible from this country but we had our turn in 2004.
Carole
Its visible from most of the globe, just the part thats in daylight,
Hawaii looks most suitable.
Mac.
That's the problem with reading stuff in foreign magazines!!!
We need to put the clocks back 10 hours
Thought that might be the case. Looks like a long haul holiday might be in order.
Quote from: The Thing on Feb 22, 2011, 07:32:59
Thought that might be the case. Looks like a long haul holiday might be in order.
Does that mean you're walking to the next DSC. ;)
Tony G
The transit (http://www.hmnao.com/nao/transit/V_2012/) will be visible from London, at least the very end.
Otherwise it's Hawaii or Tahiti or Tonga or Bora Bora... and it's my 50th that year AND the wife likes the idea. Dear oh dear, better start saving.
If its the Hawaiian islands you choose, I can personally recommend this one in Maui.
http://www.fairmont.com/kealani (http://www.fairmont.com/kealani)
spent my honeymoon there.
Mac
Seemingly the longest visible transit will be seen from southern Iceland, which isn't too far. Technical Details (http://www.transitofvenus.nl/details.html).
I have been out to scout a site for observing the transit. I have decided that Joss Bay, Broadstairs (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.379047,1.445956&hl=en&num=1&t=m&z=17) is ideal. It has a north to north east facing cliff edge car park that is tarmacked to a position far from the main part of the car park and the road. The car park has no barrier.
As long as the weather is totally ridiculous I will be there for the Wednesday morning sunrise as I will never get another chance to see a transit of Venus and even a glimpse will be worth it.
It's possible I am going to be in Penzance on that day, but I guess being further west I will stand even less chance of seeing it. I saw the previous transit at Greenwich and saw the full works, so not too disappointed if I miss this one.
I'll take my eclipse specs with me though on the off chance.
Carole
It will be visible after sunrise on the 6th June as long as you have an excellent view of the horizon (and the sky is clear).
Next chance to see one will be in 2117.
Bugger...... I shall have to miss that one. I won`t be available..... :!
Doug.
Quote from: doug on May 21, 2012, 08:13:55
Bugger...... I shall have to miss that one. I won`t be available..... :!
Doug.
I don't think any of us will be available for the next one :(
Quote from: mickw on May 21, 2012, 09:46:41
I don't think any of us will be available for the next one :(
Don't forget Mick, there are still some of us young ones about! ;)
Tony G
:lol: :lol:
we will all be keeping our appointment with Him upstairs by then :(
Mr Stevens ? :o
:o
Death Star Canteen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw)
Just looked at the planetarium software. At 4:30 GMT (5:30 BST, 6:30 European time) Venus starts to move off the sun's disk. The sun is only 5degrees above the horizon at this time.
My suggestion is to find a high point with little likelihood of mist or haze at the horizon. Joss Bay might suffer from sea mist.
My plan is to consult the weather forecast the evening beforehand and then drive to a likely viewing point to arrive before dawn. This is what I did for the total eclipse in 1999 - I ended up having to catch a last minute ferry to France to drive to the only patch of predicted clear sky within easy reach! I did manage to see the total eclipse 8)
Quote from: mickw on May 21, 2012, 17:42:38
Death Star Canteen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw)
Dunno what this has to do with the Venus transit but it certainly is laugh out loud funny!
If the weather is clear I am meeting the Crayford lot at Joss Bay at around 3am. If anyone wants to join us you are more than welcome. I will be leaving straight after the transit to go to work. Send me a pm if you need my mobile number.
Cheers
Julian
On the 6th?
Hi Julian, see you all there.
Don't forget it's £1.10 for the car park for the night :roll:. Stingy local gits :alien:.
Well we are in the south of France waiting for it with a Lunt scope :squirrel:
Are French clouds more transparent than English clouds ?
I'm in Dordogne, ready to drive through tomorrow night to an (as yet undecided) location.
Southgate ARN has a list of nandy sites sould you find your location clouded out (or in darkness) but have a Net connection...
See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/june2012/watch_venus_transit_online.htm
Anybody succeed ?
I woke up at 5:30 just in time to see the clouds
Quote from: mickw on Jun 05, 2012, 09:01:12I woke up at 5:30 just in time to see the clouds
Try again tomorrow morning...
Mick, you were 24 hours too early!!! This thread has a confusing title.
I'm thinking Brittany/Normandy for tomorrow a.m.
Carole put the wrong date on the thread. It is tomorrow morning, the 6th.
QuoteQuoteCarole put the wrong date on the thread.
Er...... if you look back at the thread starter you will find it was not me.
Carole
Sorry, Duncan did.
It's the 5th for USA and 6th for Europe.
Quote from: Carole on Jun 05, 2012, 10:31:01
QuoteQuoteCarole put the wrong date on the thread.
Er...... if you look back at the thread starter you will find it was not me.
Carole
It was me and the Transit starts on the 5th... Just 'cos we are in a cloudy country too far off the track to see it all doesn't mean the date is wrong !!!)
Good luck to all who are travelling to see the transit
its not cloudy here at the moment, but i'm not looking forward to getting up either.
Weather not looking to promising. :cry: :cry:
Tony G
Nice and clear here, we have just stopped watching it, pop quiz how many astro photographers does it take to image the transit?
Gaps in cloud allowed tail end of transit from just before 3rd contact to be seen from Orpington... :D
QuoteGaps in cloud allowed tail end of transit from just before 3rd contact to be seen from Orpington
some from Sidcup :lol:
Quotepop quiz how many astro photographers does it take to image the transit?
one
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7232/7344088738_0b346e3529_o.jpg) :cheesy:
Amazing NASA pictures of the transit
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2155140/Transit-Venus-2012-Spectacular-seen-time-2117.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
I attempted to get to St Malo but wasn't feeling well so kept stopping for a sleep. I reached the general area and although there were breaks in the cloud, they weren't enough to allow me to see anything. So a disappointment.
Mark
Bummer :(
oh dear, hope you are ok now Mark
It was a washout at Joss Bay. There was me and about 10 from Crayford plus a couple of interested locals. Gaps in the cloud kept looking promising but nothing was seen.
SDO animation... very cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9rM8ChTjY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Got up at 3:30 GMT, already had the car loaded with gear, scopes mounts and the like. The sky was not looking very promising. I did consider changing my mind on the location as the cloud breaks were due in the west first, but decided to stick with my origional plan of Kings Standing on the AshDown Forrest. Got there about 3:50 GMT a father and son were already at the car park and had been there of 30 minutes but reported that the cloud had been about the same. That is completely clouded in. Set up the scopes, th eLunt and William Optics 66 then waited. The cloud was very fast moving, which gives a chance at least. A few small breaks came over but didn't go where they needed to. Then the radio mast at the police training centre was hidden by fog. Only 20 minutes to go, then a small break which was followed by a very promising larger one. We waited for it to move across and reveal the Sun. We saw the black circle of Venus nearing the edge of the sun, only to be covered by cloud again. Another break rolled overhead this time larger than before, would it reach the point where the sun was before the end of the transit. It did I had planned to image using a webcam but it would take too long to set up, I remembered I had thrown in my DSLR and tripod at the last minute, grabbed them and quickly set up, took the molar filter off of the 66 and took a couple of shots. I had forgotten that the auto focus would struggle with the low light so the first shot or so were completely out of focus. Manually focused and took a few more shots, they were over exposed, so manual focus and manual exposure, and sucess. Well at least I could see Venus sharp, leaving the Sun's disk. That was it as the cloud rolled back in to hide the remainder of the transit.
Looking forward to May 9th 2016 for the transit of Mercury. http://www.venus-transit.de/Mercury2016/index.html
Quote from: Fay
oh dear, hope you are ok now Mark
Back at home now - still ill so not at work.
Mark
Get well soon Mark
Get well soon Mark
Get back to work ;)
Any idea what's wrong ? It's not Venus envy is it ?
Hope you recover very soon, Mark.
Hi guys and gals, some fascinating posts here on the venus transit and great pictures on the web. But I am trying to find (reasonably) accurate 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th contact timings for the june 2012 transit as seen from at least two distant locations in the world. I can't find any anywhere on the web. I am (sad man that I am...!) trying to replicate the calculations of 1760s that first gave us the size of the solar system from venus transit data. Perhaps nobody bothers with this any more since we have better ways of measuring the astonomical unit. Anyway, if anyone comes across these timing I would be glad to have them, together with the locations that they apply to. I have emailed both the Sydney Australia observatory and the Japanese national observatory Tokyo, but no reply.
PS I realised the other day that the date of the June 2004 venus transit was my first visit to OAS and when I became a member, so thanks to you all for a great 8 years! Anyone got plans for 2117? (me neither!) - Nigel
Nige, I'm too bone idle to come up with a link but you could try contacting Subaru at Mauna Kea (NAOJ), they have good PR.
I was fortunate to view the transit at the Varsity Stadium of Toronto University along with 5000 others in perfect conditions. The event was organised by the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics. They are exceptionally user friendly. Here is a link (hopefully it will work) - http://dunlap.utoronto.ca/
Thanks for the replies Mick and Vera. I still await a reply from Subaru. Dunlap replied to say they "did not take any timings, there must be some out there on the web somewhere" - but when they Googled they couldn't find any either! Still no replies from Tokyo or Sydney observatories, but Dr Gareth Wynn-Williams, Professor of Astronomy at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii found me a set from there! So I now have one set but need at least another. I have an email out to 'Mr Transit', Fred Espenak of NASA. Are any of you guys linked to Greenwich Observatory able to help? Thanks again.
Today's EPOD (http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2012/08/venus-transit-and-distance-to-the-sun-from-earth.html) takes a look at this, but doesn't quite give enough detail (like what care they took to get photos at exactly the same instant). Still quite cool, though.