Venus Transit 2012

Martin - that's a frame and hang on the wall job.
Well done!

Mark C.

guys'n gals,
you have to watch this awesome video from nasa on youtube

That's seriously COOL, and hot! Thanks Dave.

Some members of St Cronans Stargazers School Astronomy Club were on Bray Head to witness the Transit of Venus.
I arrived at 04:30 to set up my gear on a slightly elevated site on the lower slopes of Bray Head
My husband Bernard set up on the beach as the 200 mm scope was to heavy to lug up the hill and access was blocked to cars.
My intention was to sketch the solar disc and the transit in detail as it happened in h alpha , my husbands intention was to image the transit.
Three children from my astronomy club arrived with their parents at 05:00. We had a huge thick cloud bank on the horizon
there were lots of clear patches but not in the right place. One of the parents was going to image the transit. The children were going to sketch it.

While we waited and wished upon our star we watched and listened to NASA Edge live on my phone via USTREAM
As fourth contact approached we were willing the cloud to lift , shouting at the clouds, but our wish was not answered.
Sam age 10 did a lovely pencil sketch via my 50mm Monocular with Baader filter
We all looked at the sun with my h alpha scope but it was all seconds after Venus had cleared the disc and we only saw sunspots.
Our event was registered with NASA Sun Earth Day , we took part in the GLORIA project by taking images at that time of our activities and sending them to the flickr group Message to the Future - Transit of Venus 2012.

I met up with the UCD scientists who were down on the beach. They were involved directly with GLORIA.
All were disappointed but that is irish weather for you. GLORIA Project gloria-project.eu/video-transit-en/
St Cronans National School are very proud of the boys for making an effort and going to school afterwards.

















Deirdre Kelleghan
Vice Chair IFAS

That brings back memories of home, me being a Bray man and all. Pity about the weather. It was pretty bad over most of Australia also and was predicted to be a wash out. Still it brought a bunch of people together and that made it all worthwhile.

Actually we had a good laugh :laugh: :laugh: and the children enjoyed the fun of being out and about doing
something exciting. I hope to share an Io transit with them later in the year.

Deirdre Kelleghan
Vice Chair IFAS
@skysketcher