Occultation of Venus on Monday 18th June

Hi All,

A few of us from SDAS will be meeting in Glencullen on Monday afternoon to view the occultation of Venus.

Ingress is at 14:52 and egress is at 16:10.

The location may change if already in use (it's next to a cemetery and there may be a funeral on Monday PM... I'll try to find out closer to the weekend). The alternate site will probably be Cloon Wood.

We'll meet from 14:15 onwards.

If anyone is interested let me know.

Michael.

I'm interested Mike. Daytime occultation? Why not!

Seanie,

Do not make the mistake of ignoring the event just because it is during the day. In fact, I believe it is even more dramatic to watch the two brightest objects in the sky (after the sun) perform such a celestial waltz during the day.

Here is a sequence from a few years ago when something similar happened between the moon and Venus and which was also during the day: www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Occult-2004-05-21D.htm .

This time around I will be pursuing a wider angle approach using my AP160 and EOS 300d where my field of view is slightly greater than the size of the full moon.

With the daylight moon as reference, you will be pleasantly surprised how EASY it is to pick out Venus naked-eye since your eye can properly focus on the moon and then imediately pick up Venus. Otherwise, our eyes typically focus to around 400 feet (130 meters or so) and which makes it very difficult to then locate Venus (or Jupiter etc).

I booked Monday off work a few weeks ago for this one.
now all we need is a good, clear day!

I still can't decide which was to go about photographing it.
One part of me says to webcam venus to get the phase, but
the other says to just go for a wide angled stepped shot.

Either way, it'll be a challenging event to try and capture.
I'm looking forward to it!

Seanie,
Do not make the mistake of ignoring the event just because it is during the day.

Oh, it wouldn't be a mistake at all Anto! Merely that I probably have the opportunity to actually travel and do some observing like this, as opposed to trying it out on my own and being clouded out and miserable - in this case, I can be miserable with some of my astrobuddies, you see!

Here is a sequence from a few years ago when something similar happened between the moon and Venus and which was also during the day: www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Occult-2004-05-21D.htm .

By the way, that's an impressive array of images for that Venusian Occultation!