Art has been looking forward to seeing the Transit of Venus for several weeks now. He's always been interested in astronomy.
This morning I got an e-mail from a dear friend whose husband is an astrophysicist at Northwestern University. She sent us lots of fabulous information about the Venus transit through history. Jeremiah Horrocks observed the transit in 1639.
Art read that Captain Cook himself was involved in studying this sky event. I found this article in the Herald Sun:
Well before I got up Art saw clear skies and excitedly got out the box of supplies he'd saved since July 11, 1991's Solar Eclipse in Kona which was totally awesome.
About 1:00 PM Art used the sun protection card and a monocle to see Venus transitioning across the sun.
I guess it is a good thing he kept all his Eclipse supplies for the past 21 years.
Now he'll never throw anything away.
Besides somebody else could use his equipment in 2117 which is when there will be the next transition of Venus.
And of course now he was determined to take photos of Venus' progress.
I told him he couldn't do it without hurting his eyes or the camera's lens. I told him he should give up. I told him to just watch it on TV. I told him to look at it on Internet.
So of course...
I'm going to send this photo to my astrophysicist friend in Illinois. They know Art. It won't surprise them.
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| Photo from Wikipedia |
Art read that Captain Cook himself was involved in studying this sky event. I found this article in the Herald Sun:
"...Captain Cook traveled to the island of Tahiti in 1769 to observe the transit of Venus and it was on that expedition that he later came upon the east coast of Australia...."
Well before I got up Art saw clear skies and excitedly got out the box of supplies he'd saved since July 11, 1991's Solar Eclipse in Kona which was totally awesome.
 |
| Art with sun protection card and monocle |
About 1:00 PM Art used the sun protection card and a monocle to see Venus transitioning across the sun.
I guess it is a good thing he kept all his Eclipse supplies for the past 21 years.
Now he'll never throw anything away.
Besides somebody else could use his equipment in 2117 which is when there will be the next transition of Venus.
 |
| Sun protection card and Panasonic Lumix camera |
And of course now he was determined to take photos of Venus' progress.
I told him he couldn't do it without hurting his eyes or the camera's lens. I told him he should give up. I told him to just watch it on TV. I told him to look at it on Internet.
So of course...
 |
| Transit of Venus by Art |
I'm going to send this photo to my astrophysicist friend in Illinois. They know Art. It won't surprise them.
Let nothing stand in the way of Arthur's determination.
ReplyDeleteThe prize is that once in a lifetime photo!
I love Art's determination, and his talents!
ReplyDeleteThis is just awesome Kay, and how did he manage to take this one? A friend of mine just pointed her camera up to the sky and pressed the button! I heard Hawaii had an excellent view, we had clouds the morning of.
ReplyDeleteHe put his camera behind the sun protection card and took the photo. It amazingly worked.
Deletethats amazing, did he just pointand shoot like christine said
ReplyDeleteWow that is amazing!!
Yup! But behind the sun protection card.
DeleteWow! That's totally awesome. Congratulations to Art for such a cool picture. We had clouds here so there was no temptation to even try! :-)
ReplyDeletethat is impressive, sorry I missed that and the solar eclipse because I didn't have the right lens...
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome indeed and congratulations to Art!! Needless to say, it was raining all day in Seattle so I didn't have worry about my eyes, or seeing anything!!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful shot...congrats to Art!
ReplyDeleteL. from W.
nice shot!
ReplyDeleteMary, my classmate in the History of Science class last spring, wrote her paper on the Transit of Venus and her paper now appears as a Wikipedia article. I had not heard of the event until Mary gave our class a presentation. As she teaches eighth graders, her new knowledge came in handy.
ReplyDeleteHope Art enjoyed his day and that his eyes are okay. David worked for NASA on a AT&T Bell Labs project so he gets excited about all things in the sky too. I know you guys in the Pacific had a much better view. If Art hasn't had enough, the link to Mary's wiki article is below. Dianne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus
Oh my goodness! That's the link I have in my post. What fun that you know the person who wrote that thoroughly comprehensive, interesting article.
DeleteWow, way to go, Art! Good for you. Your wife is a dear, sweet, wonderful person, but a bit of a skeptic, wouldn't you say? Dick is going to be so jealous.
ReplyDeleteK
Well, if Art is pleased with his photo, we all should be, too. Congrats, Art.
ReplyDeleteNice work, Art. We were so lucky to be able to see the entire transit, too.
ReplyDeleteWow! I can't believe you both went up to Mauna Kea! What fun!!!!
Deletewow, GO ART! We saw 1991 eclipse from the Big Isle too....did Art see my Transit of Venus post? He might really enjoy that book...
ReplyDeleteAloha from Waikiki,
Comfort Spiral
> < } } ( ° >
It's late right now, but Art took a peek and said he'll definitely check it out tomorrow. It was such a great post, Cloudia.
DeleteI'm very impressed! That photo of the transit of Venus is a commendable achievement!
ReplyDelete