Jun. 8th, 2004 09:16 pm
Transit of Venus
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vin_petrolTrip up to Scarborough to watch the Transit of Venus on Oliver's Mount, with Scarborough and District Astronomical Society.
I got up at 0440 - ouch! Grendel cat looked a little shell shocked. His tiny brain clearly thought "human up - breakfast" without clearly working out that he was getting it several hours earlier than usual. At 0510 I picked up a similarly shell shocked![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gothgrr and we set off for Scarborough. Fortunately, the roads are clear at that time of the morning so we were able to make good time up to Scarborough. Arriving on Oliver's Mount it was somewhat murky and the sun was not visible.
At about this timegothgrr produced a most welcome flask of strong coffee. A quick phone call located mistressmalaise and Wesley (WINOLJ). Wesley was covering the event for his radio station (Yorkshire Coast Radio?), ably assisted by his colleague Charlotte. Every half hour he would run off and do live on-air bulletins ("I'm on Oliver's Mount - it's still cloudy!")
When the transit was due to start at 0613 the skies did actually clear for a few minutes and the sun was nicely visible, through the mist so viewable with the naked eye. We were also treated to morris dancers! Over the next few minutes it was possible to see Venus slowly biting into the sun. Not long afterwards the cloud came over again and everything was hidden :-(
Just for grins I tested the video mode on my new camera. If you like morris dancers, you can see a short video (683k) of them waving their big poles.
I wandered off to take some pictures of the assembled, though somewhat redundant, array of telescopes, whilst everyone else retreated to the handy nearby cafe. I joined them for a very welcome bacon sandwich and tea, and we sat in there for the next couple of hours, chatting happily and sometimes sending someone out to report back that "it's still cloudy." We did get to see a projected image through one telescope at about 0830. Wesley managed to do one 30 second on-air bulletin to report HE HAD SEEN THE TRANSIT!
At about 0900 we decided to withdraw to Wesley's flat, where Wesley made the slowest cup of tea I think I've ever received. He also entertained us with tales of his wonderful life in local radio, and how much he loved working for Yorkshire Coast Radio. That last statement is not strictly true - although he did read us his somewhat to-the-point resignation letter.
Once the secondhand bookshops had opened,gothgrr dragged me kicking and screaming into a shop I swear was called "Secondhand Book Emporium." I don't think I can think of a better shop name! I was very restrained and only bought two books. We decided to try the observatory at Dalby Forest (where the Scarborough society was also running an event) as the weather would be better there, and drove down to it. However, it's on a toll road which is £5 to drive down! So we skipped that and headed for York to see that last of the transit, hoping to be in the company of wey, who seemed to be getting a good view. Sadly, we didn't really have the time, so we stopped at Kirkham Priory and watched the last part of the transit there, just through my Eclipse Viewer. It was easily possible here to see the tiny dot of Venus on the rim of the sun, in a lovely clear sky!
Ah well. I'll pop over to see my sister in New Zealand for the next one (2016, IIRC). Otherwise I think it's a 122 year wait!
I got up at 0440 - ouch! Grendel cat looked a little shell shocked. His tiny brain clearly thought "human up - breakfast" without clearly working out that he was getting it several hours earlier than usual. At 0510 I picked up a similarly shell shocked
gothgrr and we set off for Scarborough. Fortunately, the roads are clear at that time of the morning so we were able to make good time up to Scarborough. Arriving on Oliver's Mount it was somewhat murky and the sun was not visible.
At about this time
gothgrr produced a most welcome flask of strong coffee. A quick phone call located mistressmalaise and Wesley (WINOLJ). Wesley was covering the event for his radio station (Yorkshire Coast Radio?), ably assisted by his colleague Charlotte. Every half hour he would run off and do live on-air bulletins ("I'm on Oliver's Mount - it's still cloudy!")When the transit was due to start at 0613 the skies did actually clear for a few minutes and the sun was nicely visible, through the mist so viewable with the naked eye. We were also treated to morris dancers! Over the next few minutes it was possible to see Venus slowly biting into the sun. Not long afterwards the cloud came over again and everything was hidden :-(
Just for grins I tested the video mode on my new camera. If you like morris dancers, you can see a short video (683k) of them waving their big poles.
I wandered off to take some pictures of the assembled, though somewhat redundant, array of telescopes, whilst everyone else retreated to the handy nearby cafe. I joined them for a very welcome bacon sandwich and tea, and we sat in there for the next couple of hours, chatting happily and sometimes sending someone out to report back that "it's still cloudy." We did get to see a projected image through one telescope at about 0830. Wesley managed to do one 30 second on-air bulletin to report HE HAD SEEN THE TRANSIT!
At about 0900 we decided to withdraw to Wesley's flat, where Wesley made the slowest cup of tea I think I've ever received. He also entertained us with tales of his wonderful life in local radio, and how much he loved working for Yorkshire Coast Radio. That last statement is not strictly true - although he did read us his somewhat to-the-point resignation letter.
Once the secondhand bookshops had opened,
gothgrr dragged me kicking and screaming into a shop I swear was called "Secondhand Book Emporium." I don't think I can think of a better shop name! I was very restrained and only bought two books. We decided to try the observatory at Dalby Forest (where the Scarborough society was also running an event) as the weather would be better there, and drove down to it. However, it's on a toll road which is £5 to drive down! So we skipped that and headed for York to see that last of the transit, hoping to be in the company of wey, who seemed to be getting a good view. Sadly, we didn't really have the time, so we stopped at Kirkham Priory and watched the last part of the transit there, just through my Eclipse Viewer. It was easily possible here to see the tiny dot of Venus on the rim of the sun, in a lovely clear sky!Ah well. I'll pop over to see my sister in New Zealand for the next one (2016, IIRC). Otherwise I think it's a 122 year wait!