Venus Transit !

Post by **Airconvent** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 5:48 pm

As usual, I'll leave it to the 2 groups at SP and Toa Payoh to send their reports and upload photos. I took half day leave today to settle some personal matters as well as to alternate between the 2 venues.
Anyone went for the Science Centre one? I heard there were long queues.

Anyway, by the time I could leave the office, it was already 1.15am, so I missed the part where Venus just eased into the Sun. Saw it on a camcorder though. The sky had been overcast the past few days but thankfully it cleared up for a wonderful show today. There were alot of scopes at SP and lots of students there as well. Poor Michael missed all this as he is lying on the floor somewhere doing push ups (1st day of BMT).
Apart from the SP gang and a collection of students from various schools, the Singastroians included Remus, Chung Hooi, Jun Wei, David Lian and myself. Half the scopes had cameras attached to it, so I guess there'll be alot of photos to see. Meanwhile at Toa Payoh, Sam and his Pronto is at it with some people including Wenyi and Zong.

Yes...But what about the view?? GREAT! Most of the time, Venus appeared as a crescent or maybe a flattened circle. Today for the first time, we see it as a full disk in the sun's foreground. Weather you see it directly or via eyepiece projection, the image is awesome. Even my solar sunglasses could just make out the dot that is Venus. Yes, everyone who went to see the Venus came out happy. Me? I had wished I brought my telescope and bought some Baader solar filter but alas its a working day, so could not...sigh..

Anxiously waiting to see the uploaded pics. (I could not stay to long as I alternated between fetching my mom and the 2 venues...)

rich

MooEy · Post by **MooEy** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:18 pm

at sp around 12pm+: contact!!! contact!!! 10 o'clock!!!! 10 o'clock!!!

~MooEy~

Post by Q » Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:25 pm

not the best... one of the worst... haha
shot through F828 (without scope) with a oversize solar filter...
:p
http://www.singastro.org/album_pic.php?pic_id=224

starfirez · Post by **starfirez** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:56 pm

i took some too.. first time taking pics from telescope, just place my camera in front of the lens so not very good. aching all over also due to awkward positions (refractor) so.. hehz, uploaded 2 of them

http://www.singastro.org/album_pic.php?pic_id=225
http://www.singastro.org/album_pic.php?pic_id=226

chunghooi · Post by **chunghooi** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 8:16 pm

Venus Transit in HK.

Post by **weixing** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 8:29 pm

Hi,
I manage to make my solar filter in time, so I set up near my house. But it was quite hot and a huge cloud seem to be coming in and weather forecast said there will be raining (another inaccurate forecast

), so I end my observation at around 14:30.

Anyway, below is the raw images that I scale down and paste them together. It show just after contact I, contact II and end of contact II.

Have a nice day.

Post by **Airconvent** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 1:46 am

Cool...all the nice pics! Now patiently waiting for Sam Lee to upload the photos he took at SP as well as Tucker's video clip...

Its pretty amazing the sun looks so calm and circular with no agitation what-so-ever when in reality its a thermonuclear furnance...
How come the pics in hong kong shows solar flares ( I think they are called prominences??) and the ones in Singapore do not show it? I guess they stared at it all the way like a hawk and caught them at the right moment?

rich

Post by **weixing** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 2:10 am

Hi,

How come the pics in hong kong shows solar flares

They take the pciture using Hydrogen-Alpha filter lah... that's why they can photo the solar flare. Anyway, there are two very small sun spot in the middle of the sun, but that not very obvious.

Have a nice day.

Have a nice day.

chrisyeo · Post by **chrisyeo** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 3:55 am

What a treat! We in Singapore were blessed with clear skies and I'm sure that all who caught the Venus transit were in collective awe.

At 1:15pm, when the first contact happened at the 10 o'clock position, there was a realisation that all the astronomers this side of the planet were gasping at the same moment. Then, as Venus inched its way in, it was amazing to realise that this was indeed a planet in motion, that Venus was that jet black circle, and that you are seeing something that no one alive has seen before. The round disk of Venus against the sun was quite dramatic! Haha, wait 8 years more to see it again.. one of the rarest astronomical occurances around.

I've uploaded a series of captures from my webcam of the transit:
First contact 1:15pm http://www.singastro.org/album_pic.php?pic_id=229
1:28 pm http://www.singastro.org/album_pic.php?pic_id=230
1:37 pm http://www.singastro.org/album_pic.php?pic_id=232

I also captured a video of contact II showing the black drop effect, but its very shaky due to win and its too big to upload.

Clear Skies
Chris

chrisyeo · Post by **chrisyeo** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 4:16 am

Weixing,

What solar filter did you make and how did you get the orange colour?

Chris

SingAstro

Venus Transit !

Venus Transit !

1st pic...