In 1639 brilliant astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks and his friend William Crabtree were the first two ever to observe a Transit of Venus, which Horrocks described as “a most agreeable spectacle.” A delightful understatement indeed! Only six more Venus transits have occurred since then, and last week, for the one and only time in my life, I had the privilege of viewing the “most agreeable spectacle” of the 2012 Venus Transit. Here’s my story:
Here’s the soon-to-be-transited Sun, a few sunspots evident, at 3:23 PM CDT, June 5, 2012, viewed inside my projection box, a bit of low-tech space exploration technology which consisted of white paperboard taped inside a desk drawer. The equipment used for all these photos is my 60mm refractor telescope, 17mm eyepiece, and trusty LG VX8360 cell phone camera. I had the privilege of leading a Community Education class for the occasion of the transit, attended by eleven eager observers and learners. Some were family and friends who had earlier attended our solar eclipse party, and others were new friends who had signed up for the class. We gathered at the local Middle School at 6:45, and began with fifteen minutes of orientation. After that we switched to “observation party” format, freely moving between the outside observation area and the classroom, where we could watch the NASA EDGE webcast live from Hawaii.
After wrapping up the orientation, we headed out to view the beginning of the transit. As soon as I had the telescope and projection box set up, we could already see a telltale “bite” bitten out of the Sun’s limb. The transit had begun! It began earlier than I thought it would, and in retrospect I see two mistakes I made that cost us the chance to see the very beginning of the transit:
1. I didn’t have the telescope completely set up beforehand, and specifically, I didn’t have something ready to elevate the projection box. After a minute of near-frantic problem-solving, I had the projection box perched on top of an inverted garbage can!
2. I should have checked for the exact local time of first ingress. I hadn’t given it much thought, and assumed that it wouldn’t vary by much more than a couple of minutes globally. But soon, as class members moved between the outdoor viewing area and the Hawaii-based webcast in the classroom, they reported that Hawaii’s view was delayed by a few minutes compared to our view from Minnesota. In fact, if I had bothered to check our local transit times using this user-friendly utility, I would have known that our local first ingress time was 5:04:40, not 5:08 or 5:09 as I had guessed! No matter, nobody seemed disturbed, and in fact the noticeable difference between Hawaii’s time and ours proved to be an interesting learning experience for the whole class, including me. After all, it only makes sense. As Venus moved to the right across the Sun’s face according to our perspective, the Earth as viewed from Venus also was moving to the right, as from Venus’ point of view Earth was at opposition, and was in the midst of retrograde motion. Below, thanks to a great utility called the NASA/JPL Solar System Simulator is the Earth as viewed from Venus at 22:05 UT 6-5-12, the time of first ingress as viewed from Minnesota:
As you can see, Minnesota, in the heart of North America, is about one-half Earth diameter ahead of Hawaii, which resulted in us being almost six minutes ahead of Hawaii in viewing each stage of the transit. Of course, their reward for being “behind” is that they got to see the whole thing, whereas the Sun set in Minnesota while the transit was still happening!
Anyway, without further ado, here are some views of the transit in progress. Some of the earlier photos are a bit pale and diffuse due to a hazy sky, but I’m not complaining. It sure beat overcast skies!!!
5:11, my first photo of the transit in progress.
Though this 5:21 PM photo may not show it, I think I could discern a ring of light around Venus’ circumference at about this time.
Though we missed the First Ingress, we successfully witnessed Second Ingress, which took place during the following series of four photos, all taken during the minute of 5:22 PM local time:
Class members viewing the webcast at 5:32 PM.
Here’s what we saw on the webcast at 5:33 PM. Compare this view from Hawaii with the 5:25 PM photo above of our view from Minnesota, and you’ll see that they’re about the same.
At 5:37 PM, Venus had advanced about one Venutian diameter inside the Sun’s limb.
This photo was taken at 5:54 PM, just before we gathered in the classroom to learn more about the transit.
We wrapped up the class at 6:45, but I sent them home with their new eclipse shades, reminding them that the transit could still be seen for over two hours, and the webcast would continue until midnight. This photo was taken at 6:50 PM, the last photo before heading home.
After returning home I set up the telescope and projection box on the deck, and shared the experience of the transit with my wife. Here’s a small but clear photo taken at 7:18 PM. By the way, if you’re wondering why the Sun looks bigger in some pics than others, it’s because photographing a projection is a subjective experience, depending both on the eyepiece-screen distance as well as the screen-camera distance. It’s not like aiming the camera into the eyepiece, which always gives you the same magnification for the same telescope/eyepiece combination.
7:20 PM.
My last photo of the transit, as the Sun and Venus began to dip behind the big tree in the northwest part of the backyard. 7:33 PM.
8:14 PM, the transit still in progress, but it was time for my wife and me to enjoy an evening walk with our venerable dog Pluto. Of course, I took a pair of eclipse shades along to take a look from time to time! My last glimpse of the transit in progress was about 8:30 PM, the time of deepest transit. Indeed, a most agreeable spectacle!
this is awesome!
Thanks much! Yes, it was an awesome experience, and I’m truly thankful it went as well as it did!
[…] Comments « “A Most Agreeable Spectacle” – Viewing the 2012 Venus Transit from Alexandria, Min… […]
[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]
[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]
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[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]
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[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]
[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]
[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]
[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]
[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]
[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]
[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]
[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]
[…] PM CDT June 5, 2012 (00:33 UT June 6, 2012) Angular diameter 57.78 arc seconds 0.0% illumination, transiting the Sun Distance from Earth 26,836,379 miles (43,188,966 km) Projection method with 60mm refractor […]