Transit of Venus today

[Ratbag]

Gidday Folks

I believe that there is a Transit of Venus occurring today.

The Gods have smiled, and so far Melbourne's weather is sunny. Seeing as how Melbourne's weather is what is charmingly called "unpredictable",

I plan to drag out my 80 mm refractor with Thousand Oaks Solar Filter thereon and have a gander at it.

Might even try out my new micrometer focuser and try for some photos!

DO NOT look at this without serious eye protection - ARC welding goggles are fine; oxy welding goggles are not

DO NOT look at this with any kind of magnifying device such as a telescope or binoculars without using a proper solar filter. JUST ONE glance with unprotected eyes can totally blind you.

Article:
https://www.thenewstribe.com/2012/06/06/transit-of-venus-june-2012-last-chance-until-2117/

Visibility path:
https://www.thenewstribe.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Transit-of-Venus-visibilty.gif

 

[Rally]

Overcast here in Sydney, so even if I had the gear it would be of no use. I had heard that all welding goggles were no good, so best use specialised equipment. The Transit of Venus obviously has special interest in our history. None of us will ever see it again.

 

[Ratbag]

Gidday Rally

Overcast here in Sydney, so even if I had the gear it would be of no use. I had heard that all welding goggles were no good, so best use specialised equipment. The Transit of Venus obviously has special interest in our history. None of us will ever see it again.

The Melbourne weather Gods have just rolled in the cloud as the Sun is clearing the trees ...

BTW, I have used arc welding goggles with the OVF of my SLR and 200 mm lens for photographing the full Solar eclipse in the 1970s.

Arc welding goggles are designed for about 11,000°F right in front of you, AND to filter out all the UV spectrum and shorter wavelengths. Oxy goggles do not have UV protection, so you will fry your retinas if one were silly enough to use them to look at the Sun; SPECIALLY with using any kind of optical device.

However, I agree in principle - If you're not certain; DON'T do it!.
Not worth risking one's eyesight ...

 

[Ratbag]

The Melbourne weather Gods have smiled!! :ebiggrin: :biggrin:

Not only saw the transit, me and my mate got lots of photos through the telescope.

:ebiggrin:

 

[Ratbag]

Still taking shots between the clouds.

A bit more info here

 

[Ratbag]

I'm absolutely stoked! :ebiggrin:

Even got some photos as the disk of Venus intersected the limb of the Sun ... :biggrin:

The new micrometer focuser (Crayford type, 2") on the telescope worked beautifully, even though I have yet to re-balance the 'scope since it was fitted.
The guy needed to chop about an inch off one end of the OTA, and around 2.5" off the other end, so it is very unbalanced, specially with the camera adapter and camera attached!

 

[Rally]

More importantly, can you confirm the size of Venus, it's distance from the sun and ditto for all the other planets in the solar system??? After all, that is the significance of the whole thing. :ebiggrin:

 

[Ratbag]

No, I can't ... :iconwink:

More importantly, can you confirm the size of Venus, it's distance from the sun and ditto for all the other planets in the solar system??? After all, that is the significance of the whole thing. :ebiggrin:

And here was I thinking that it also confirmed the accuracy of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity ... :lol:

Literally, "a once in a lifetime" event.
Unlike the usual media hyperbole about such things that generally occur every other week, in reality ...

The photos aren't all that crash-hot. Some look OK at about A1 size ...
Lots of chromatic aberration from the front lens cell being (possibly) slightly out of alignment. Also lots with motion blur due to the scope being out of balance as per my previous post.

Still and all, it was wonderful to actually see it happening.
Some nice smallish sunspots too. Just tiddlers really ... only big enough to swallow the Earth with ease ... :iconwink: :lol: