Transit of Venus 2004 - www.venustransit.ie

Hi,

I've sent this out to the clubs email addresses, but just in case I've missed someone I'll post here too. You can contact me at albert.white at sun.com

Cheers,
~Al

----
Hi folks,

There was a meeting of the National Steering Committee about the venus transit today ( www.venustransit.ie ) and there are a few matters arising from that that I said I would discus with you.

Firstly, we would like to get correct contact information for you all for the www.venustransit.ie web page. Press and Media will be directed to this site, and people around the country will be directed there to find out about their local events. So please let me know the
Name
Telephone number
Area/Address
e-mail
web address
of a contact person in your society so that people will be able to contact you about the event.

Secondly, can you send me a postal address for you club. I need this to send you some posters and flyers from the ESO so that you can display them where you tihnk they will be of most use for promoting the event and your clubs (libraries etc.).

Thirdly, it wont be possible for the steering committee to contact every media outlet in the country, instead they will try to focus is on National Media. Ian Elliott and Tom Ray should be on the RTE radio tonight in fact. So we would like you to contact your local radio and papers to publicise the event, there is plenty of source material on the venustransit.ie site for them to use, and most radio/papers would rather have a local person speaking.

Fourthly (I'm nearly finished!) Can you please put a link from your websites to the venustransit site? something similar to what I have on the www.irishastronomy.org/ilpac site.

Fifthly, there is a photo gallery on the www.vt-2004.org site. Some members of Irish Clubs have produced some excellent venus related pictures on the IFAS website, and we would encourage you to post them at this european wide site also. There is a wealth of information on that site so please pass it on to your members, in particular the section designed for Amateur Astronomers www.vt-2004.org/Amateurs/ . And of course you can join in the discussion on the transit at the IFAS site www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=665 .

And finally, can you please register your group, and any events that you plan to run with the www.vt-2004.org website. In particular the Irish node at www.vt-2004.org/vt-net/vt-net-ireland.html

Thanks!

~Albert White
--
On behalf of the Irish Steering Committee, vt-2004 Project.

p.s. Let me know if I have missed out any clubs on this email!

Dear Colleagues,

No doubt you are aware that there are only 27 days left until the Transit of
Venus on Tuesday, 8 June. This is a spectacle no living person has seen and
it is a wonderful opportunity to promote a better understanding of
astronomy.

ESO has grasped this opportunity and it has an elaborate programme, funded
by the EU, to exploit the event for science education (see www.vt-2004.org ).
The programme is being promoted on an all-Ireland basis by the Astronomical
Science Group of Ireland and Armagh Planetarium. A National Steering
Committee has been co-ordinating information and publicity and an Irish
website www.venustransit.ie is being developed.

Apart from making the general public aware of the event, we hope to interest
in particular teachers and pupils and to encourage them to make timings of
the transit. Unfortunately, state exams start on Wednesday, 9 June, so most
secondary pupils will not be in school; there is consequently an urgent need
to instruct them in advance on safe ways of observing the Sun. There is an
excellent Teachers' Guide on the vt-2004 website for second level schools.
Primary schools may find it easier to participate and there is an excellent
Kid's Area on the vt-2004 website. It is hoped that ASGI members and amateur
astronomers will contact teachers in local primary schools to inform them of
this opportunity and to draw their attention to the recommendations for safe
observing on the VT-2004 website.

On the day of the Transit, ESO is arranging for 200 mirror sites to be
available, so this may become the greatest Web event in history. As timing
measurements come into the vt-2004 website, the average value of the
Astronomical Unit will be estimated; it will be interesting to compare the
final result with the value from radar measurements. Also, individuals can
judge how good are their own estimates.

On behalf of the NSC I ask for your support and I will forward information
on a regular basis over the next few weeks. Please let me know if you do not
wish to be included in this mailing list. A5 flyers (see attachment) have
been distributed to ASGI members and to libraries; if you would like a few
hundred, please contact me.

As a start, ask your friends to try the quiz at
www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/quiz/quiz.asp

With sincere thanks for your anticipated support,

Ian Elliott
Hon. Sec. to the Irish NSC for VT-2004

ok folks, this thread is for the discussion of events relating to the Venus transit. There is a thread on the ashen lights already so please keep discussions in the appropriate places, or start new ones. I'm deleting the superflous posts from this thread.

~Al

Here is the latest information from the International Steering Committee for
VT-2004. Kindly let me know of special events happening in Ireland and I
will collate the information.

Ian Elliott


Dear National Nodes,

today the Central Display is on the web. So all corner stones of the vt-2004
project internet- presentation exist and are available. I think ISC has
created and published a colourful mosaic of information. The pictures from
Prague will be tomorrow on the web. For the next press release we need a
short report or overview from every National Node, which announce and
describes the special events, which are planned for the day of the transit,
like the great happening in the Frogner park in Norway. And lat last: We
have received a lot of fine and fascinating pictures and very interesting
e-mails during the last days and so it may be that it will take some time to
react. And finally: The t-shirts are on the way since yesterday.

Kind regards

Bernhard

Hi,
I'm not sure if this is the place for this but, is anyone outside the astro community excited about this ???
I tried explaining it to some of my non-astro friends and they were looking at me like I had 2 heads, "a black do crossing the sun taking 5 hours, and only visible with the propper gear", was one reply
Is anyone else having trouble trying to wipping up enthusiasm for this ??

Personally, I can't wait .. , but thats just me.

Is anyone else having trouble trying to wipping up enthusiasm for this ??

I'm still trying to get details of transit watches from the clubs, so yea it seems I'm having enthusiasm issues also! (email or pm me for flyers & posters!)

I think it will all come together on the day. The media, already taking note, will publicise it on the 7th. By which time the groundwork will be done, the vt-2004.org site will be serving webcast images around the world, venustransit.ie will have details of clubs and transit watches if people do want to drop along, and this site is here to discus the event.

Presentation has a lot to do with it also. Someone on TV saying this is a spectacular astronomical event is a little boring compared to someone saying that if it wasnt for the venus transit in 1769, Hawaii would not have been discovered until later, or raising more romantic notions evoked by Harkness in 1882

"We are now on the eve of the second transit of a pair, after which there will be no other till the Twenty-First century of our era has dawned upon the earth, and the June flowers are blooming in 2004.... What will be the state of science when the next transit season arrives God only knows." (American astronomer William Harkness in 1882).

Ok even so we still have a long way to catch up with the enthusiasm the Norweigans can muster for such things - www.astronomy.no/venus080604/frognerpark.html

Overall I'm optimistic that the events, coverage, and outreach in Ireland will be a success. There are things that could have been done better, but people (well me anyway!) have learnt a lot about organising such events, nationally and across europe. But it will take that media flurry on the night or that morning if its clear to focus the attention on it.

Cheers,
~Al