Venus Transit 8^th June 2004

One of the most anticipated events of 2004 has come and gone.

The Galloway Astronomy Centre had been generating local interest in the event for the past few weeks. Guests, Catherine, Gregory and Izzy from the Bradford Astronomical Society had pre- booked to view the event. The computer controlled telescope had been align the previous night to ensure accurate tracking. Regrettably the early start at 05.45 was in vain as the clouds refused to clear until 06.55. At the first clear view of the sun Venus was a very distinct black disc.

The telescopes were arranged to provide a variety of views. The GAC's Helios ST102 fitted with a Baader filter was used to provide a full Sun view. The GAC's Orion GX200 was fitted with a Thousand Oaks full aperture solar filter and a Mintron Astrovideo camera gave a continuous video feed to a TV located in the darkness of the observatory and recorded on VCR. Catherine's Celestron Nexstar 8 fitted with a Baader was used to give high power views. In all three views Venus stood out very starkly – the blackness was more intense than the usual black of sunspots. Three small sunspots were visible towards the centre. An interesting event I observed was a small dark spot transiting the Sun most probably a satellite.

With two types of filters in use we were to do a comparison. The most obvious difference was that when the cloud cover thinned the sun was visible sooner in the telescopes with Baader filters than with the Thousand Oaks filter. However, the Thousand Oaks orange tint to the sun was more pleasing than the pale grey-purple of the Baader.

Conditions stayed generally favourable for some 5 hours, with any further cloud quickly passing away. With such an early start everyone enjoyed a good cooked breakfast next to the observatory at the half way stage. A number of local residents near the Centre dropped in to check on the progress of the transit. A party atmosphere developed when a guitar was brought along and folk songs were sung.

Having missed the start of the transit we all hoped that the third and forth contacts would be visible. It was planned to try to time the point of third contact using all the telescopes. Unfortunately, the clouds became more dense making it difficult to distinguish Venus on the TV. This was abandoned in favour of using the GX200 visually but the limitation of the filter mentioned above became apparent. The small view in the ST102 made timing difficult. Only the Nexstar gave a view that was clear enough to see third contact although the black drop effect made timing difficult. Our third contact time was estimated at 12hr 03 min 40 sec.

Using the Open University AU calculator on www.open2.et website with an additional +17 seconds the website calculated a distance of 148.12 million Km. The actual distance is given as 149.6 million Km. So not a bad result considering the poor seeing towards the end.

It was a great feeling knowing we were part of a mass viewing all over the world amateurs and the public alike.

Catherine, Nexstar8 & lucky mascot

Nexstar8 and GX200 waiting for the Sun

Observing starts

Venus in Transit

At 08.30

The cooks have a rest

Neighbours Amelia & Hugh entertain

Click image for larger picture

Images copyright

C Waddington