Venus

[brrm]

Nipped out of work before lunch to go & have a look at the transit of Venus, in Parks. There was an impressive crowd of people there, including my old tutor Martin Noble, and Richard Dawkins. Various telescopes had been set up, and there were long (but fast-moving) queues waiting to have a look through them.


Photos here

There were two semi-naked women kissing, but I didn't think it appropriate to use the work camera to photograph them. :-) (Not to mention, like, asking their permission or anything).

Quite pleased with the photo of the sun, too - taken through a telescope, just pointing the digicam into the eyepiece.

Comments

[aendr.livejournal.com]

Well, with telescopes and projection onto paper, we saw ... venus, the black drop effect, some sun spots (it's a quiet time for sunspots too) and some faculae [that's the opposite of sunspots for those who don't know*], and the break up of the stable boundary layer at 9:15 (when the sun went from being clearly solid to shimmery at the edges).

* sunspots are colder regions of the solar atmosphere, so look dark, Faculae are hotter regions so are brighter and pale against the sun. Sunspot and faculae groups tend to occur in pairs, though not always close to each other. They show regions of convection where material of a different temperature to the sun's surface is being convected down from or up to the surface.

[tithonus.livejournal.com]

ah, so that's a photo of paper?

by we saw, do you mean in that picture? or do you me you and some other unknown people?

black drop effect?

thanks for the spot/faculae education. :-)

[brrm.livejournal.com]

No, my photo is taken through a telescope, like the text says :-)
The other end of the 'scope was covered with a heavily-silvered foil commonly used for observing the sun. The generic term is 'mylar', I don't know if they differ at all in coating/darkness.

[aendr.livejournal.com]

Mylar is a particular type of radiation filter material. It's also a tradename of DuPont's. It is layered metalised polyester which reflects about 98% of the light which hits it [visible wavelengths] depending on quality/type. You can get all sorts of other solar filters, which aren't the same type of material as mylar.

[tithonus.livejournal.com]

ah! i read your initial sentence as a reply to my question how they got the sun to look like a snooker ball. things are much clearer now!

[aendr.livejournal.com]

I was in Exeter, with a different set of scopes and people.
Black drop - the edge effect when two edges nearly touch. http://www.transitofvenus.org/blackdrop.htm
No problem re education - not sure if you knew or not but it was aimed in general at any reader who didn't.

[tithonus.livejournal.com]

nice link thanks!
i'm generally not very knowledgeable about astronomy things - i don't really take much interest. i love to look at things like hubble photos, but looking at the stars or whatnot with my own eyes seems a bit pointless, because you never see anything particular impressive or interesting.

my main interest in space has always been the rockets and other craft - really just glorified aeroplanes, a long standing interest.

*shrug* i have no romance or something.