Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Astronomy

Venus Transit of the Sun Tomorrow – June 5, 2012

transitTomorrow is the rare solar transit of planet Venus. Even though we’re going to be running errands tomorrow afternoon, we’re taking our cameras, solar filters and eclipse shades in an attempt to witness and record the phenomenon. The event starts at a little after three our time and will still be in progress at sundown. We will be home when Venus reaches the halfway point across the solar disc.

We’re hoping to get imagery similar to the image at the right. We will be using the same cameras and techniques used for the May 20 annular eclipse.

Here’s some information I posted last month:

There is a listing of transit contact events for US cities (and another for international). The closest city listed to our location is Phoenix, AZ. The first event is when the disc of Venus first touches the solar disc occurs at 15:05:55 (Arizona Time); the sun will be 54° above the horizon. The second event is when the other edge of Venus crosses the edge of the sun and occurs at 15:23:32; the sun will be at 50° of elevation. The last transit contact listed is greatest transit which, I assume, is when Venus is halfway across its path over the sun; that occurs at 18:25:24 when the sun is at 13° of elevation.

There is supposed to be a live webcast covering the event. Remember – if you miss this transit, the next one will not be until the year 2117.

04 Jun 2012 by Astronomy Science

Total Solar Eclipse of August 21, 2017

eclipse-2017.jpgWe started planning on viewing the total eclipse even before experiencing the annular eclipse last week. We think that we will observe the total eclipse from Casper, WY, although that could change.

The eclipse is still more than five years in the future and since it will occur on a coast to coast path across the United States, there are a lot of places to view the phenomenon. The greatest eclipse will occur in Western Kentucky – that is when the duration of totality is the longest – two minutes and 40 seconds of totality in this case.

Image: Path of totality across the states. Click to go to the official NASA eclipse site.

Wherever we decide to view the eclipse, I’m sure it will be spectacular. In Wyoming, totality will last about 2 minutes and 24 seconds. That’s plenty of time to see the stars and planets come out and for the surface temperature to drop noticeably.

This is a long time away, but we wanted to make this note about it on the blog. Maybe over the next five years we can organize an expedition of family and friends to enjoy the event. We’ll see . . .

28 May 2012 by Astronomy Environment Retirement

Annular Animation

Using photographs that Damsel took during the eclipse, I threw together a little animation of the main part of the event. To start the animation, click the image below; it will run until maximum annularity. Click again to continue to almost the end of annularity. Click once more to to rewind. Pardon the slight jitter; it was difficult to align each frame perfectly.

I cannot tell you how amazingly spectacular it was to see in person. Damsel and I are already starting to plan for the total eclipse that will occur on August 21, 2017. We are looking at being near Casper, WY, but that could change between now and five years from now.

24 May 2012 by Astronomy Environment Photography

June 5, 2012 Solar Transit of Venus

Sebastian posted a bleg yesterday asking about observing the 2012 transit of Venus across the solar disk.Since I have been preparing for the annular eclipse, I posted a comment there pointing to my recent experiences with solar photography. His post got me to look up some information about the transit since we wanted to observe it here, too.

I found the NASA map of global visibility (Image courtesy of NASA) Going to the link helps you to decode the map elements (I,II,III,IV). Click on the map to enlarge.

transit-map.jpg

There is a listing of transit contact events for US cities (and another for international). The closest city listed to our location is Phoenix, AZ. The first event is when the disc of Venus first touches the solar disc occurs at 15:05:55 (Arizona Time); the sun will be 54° above the horizon. The second event is when the other edge of Venus crosses the edge of the sun and occurs at 15:23:32; the sun will be at 50° of elevation. The last transit contact listed is greatest transit which, I assume, is when Venus is halfway across its path over the sun; that occurs at 19:25:24 when the sun is at 13° of elevation.

Nobody in the 48 contiguous states can witness the entire transit because it will not be over until after sundown. It will be entirely visible in Alaska and Hawaii, however.

So, I guess we will keep the eclipse shades and solar filters handy for another three weeks or so. We wouldn’t want to miss this transit since the next one will not be until December of 2117.

15 May 2012 by Astronomy Photography Science

Another (BIG) Sunspot

spot-1476-1.jpg

I’m still rehearsing for the eclipse next week. Yesterday, very large sunspot 1476 was strutting its stuff across the solar plasma (still is today, I believe). I stepped out to the courtyard and captured this solar disk image using the techniques for previous solar imaging. If you look closely, you can see sunspot group 1477 above and to the left – look for a pair of slightly dark spots at about latitude 45. Click on the image for full resolution.

12 May 2012 by Astronomy Photography

Solar Photography Practice

spot1472.jpgThe 2012 annular solar eclipse is just over two weeks away. We are still scheduled to witness this magnificent event from Page, Arizona, almost exactly on the centerline of the annular eclipse path. The eclipse will occur about an hour before sunset, so the sun will be low in the western sky at the peak of annularity.

I took a minute this afternoon to check the SOHO website for active sunspots and found that large spot 1472 is currently showing midway between the center and the limb of the sun. I went outside with the SX-40 and the solar adapter to take some practice shots. For the image at the right, I used the filter (of course) 1/1600′ shutter speed and F8.0 aperture with a film speed of 3200. Sunspot 1472 shows up at about 7 o’clock on the solar disk in the image.

I wanted to make sure that my earlier experiments would work when we are in Page on May 20th. I think that using the filter, a very fast film speed, a fast shutter speed and a normal aperture will enable me to capture the lunar/solar images just fine. Now, if the weather will cooperate, we have it made. 😉 Click on the solar image to enlarge.

05 May 2012 by Astronomy Photography

Categories

Archives