Venus Transit, Conquered

Oneonta weather gave us some challenges when it came time to observe the last Venus transit for 105 years, but it was worth it!  This entry is a description of the evening's event as I described it to the folks who write for the College news.

The evening began with a solid cloud deck and rain, but by 6:00 the rain had stopped and the clouds had slightly thinned. By that point, Shawn Grove (a 2012 SUNY Oneonta graduate) and I were joined by 5 or 6 people from the community in the observatory waiting for the weather to clear. The transit technically began at 6:03 p.m. here in Oneonta, and around 6:10 we were suddenly greeted with a thin spot in the clouds where we could see the disk of the Sun. Quickly we pointed the 14-inch telescope at it and were greeted with a view showing Venus approximately halfway through its "entrance" into the solar disk. It looked like a dark dimple in the edge of the Sun. Those who were present were very excited to see this, although it only lasted a few minutes before the clouds thickened up again. From then we waited for over an hour, watching as small gaps in the clouds passed by outside the vicinity of the Sun. More people from the community arrived, and some waited while others left.

Then at about 7:20 p.m. we saw sunlight streaming through another break in the clouds. By this time the Sun had dropped low enough that it was behind trees, so we couldn't see it from the elevated 14-inch dome. However, we did have a smaller 4.5-inch telescope with a solar filter on the ground that we could move. Grabbing it, we raced across the grassy lawn to a point where the Sun was visible. Venus was well into its transit by then so we were blessed with the view that is shown in the image below.

The clouds remained thin enough to see it clearly while the group of roughly 15 people, including several children, each took turns looking through the small scope.  A handful of people had gone into the woods to check out the nearby pond and when we called out to them they came sprinting out of the woods. Everyone was able to see it, many people took pictures with camera phones (and me with my digital camera), and by 7:45 p.m. the clouds obscured the Sun again just as it dropped below the tree line for good.

Part of the excitement was that "thrill of the hunt" feeling from waiting and then pursuing with the small telescope in hand. Another part of the excitement came from being able to witness an event that won't occur for another 105 years. However, I think the greatest satisfaction for me was being able to see people from the community come up in the hopes of seeing the transit, be rewarded for their diligence, and walk away feeling like it had been worth the wait.  Everyone was thrilled to have been able to see it.  Thank you to everyone who came out to see it!