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!

Venus Transit of the Century

With a plethora of websites dedicated to tomorrow's transit of Venus across the face of the Sun, including a page on Wikipedia about it, I don't feel the need to wax eloquent about the upcoming event in too much detail. Numerous sources can be read to learn about the orbits of Venus and Earth, the importance it once had in determining the distance scales of our solar system, and so on. However, since this blog is dedicated to the observer in the Oneonta, NY region, you're probably wondering about when it will be visible.

The most recent transit of Venus occurred in early June of 2004.  This transit occurred in the early morning in North America, with viewers in New York seeing it already in progress as the sun rose.  This made the event a bit of a challenge to see, since getting up before the sun rises isn't on most people's list of favorite things to do.  In Michigan at this time, I would have been an undergraduate at Central Michigan University.  Since I was an avid astronomer and astronomy student at the time, if it had been visible then I'm sure I would have gone to see it at our school's telescope.  The fact that I don't have any memories of it makes me think it may have been cloudy that day.

For those who don't know me...I have a terrible memory.  Case in point: I currently have 13 Post-it notes on my desk at this very moment with reminders for various things!  Not to mention the five half-page sized pieces of paper with other various notes jotted on them and an index card of notes as well.  But I digress...

The 2012 Venus is visible in North America in the early evening until sunset, making it much more accessible for the average viewer.  Expected to begin at approximately 6:00 p.m. in Oneonta, the second planet from the Sun (and our closest planetary neighbor) will continue its sojourn across our star's face until well after the sun has set, giving us only a limited opportunity to watch it for approximately an hour and a half.

The current weather forecast is for clouds and possibly rain.  If you're a sucker for "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunities, you may want to take a trip somewhere else to watch it - preferably farther west where you can watch it for a longer time period.

HOWEVER!  The Internet now offers the couch-astronomer and those of us in cloudy parts of the planet the chance to watch this event live as seen from somewhere else. You can visit the website for the SLOOH Space Camera or NASA's live webcast from Mauna Kea, Hawaii. I recommend tuning into the webcast shortly before 6:00 p.m. EDT to make sure you see it.  If you want it to feel like you're really there watching it through a telescope, get a paper towel tube and hold it up to your computer screen.  Who says you need fancy equipment?  The Internet is pretty fancy in my opinion!

If you are in the Oneonta area and the weather magically happens to be clear in the late afternoon on June 5, come see us at the SUNY Oneonta observatory at College Camp.  We will have a couple telescopes with solar filters for safe viewing set up.  Don't look directly at the sun for this event, or permanent eye damage may result.  We will have safe equipment for viewing the event.  Our viewing of the Sun and the eclipse will be open to the public starting at 5:30 p.m.

If the weather looks bad, hop online and visit one of the websites above.  This is what I did for the most recent annular solar eclipse and it wasn't bad.  Better than missing it altogether, anyway!

Happy viewing!