标签: transit

A few days ago, I received a photo of the Transit of Venus from "Down Under" (Australia). The interesting thing is that in this image (see below) the dark spot that is Venus appears toward the bottom of the Sun (the way you typically seem to see it in photographs), whereas when I saw it with my own eye it appeared toward the top of the Sun (see my blog ). Of course I'm in the Northern Hemisphere while they are in the Southern Hemisphere, but I'm not really sure why this would affect the way we see things like the Transit of Venus ... maybe someone can explain it to me (using simple words so that I can understand). Anyway, the photograph below was accompanied by the following cheery message: G'day to the famous Max. I thought I'd send you a photo of the event taken at about 10:30 in "The Land Downuder", in particular Brisbane. I didn't have all the correct gear but managed to catch this anyway. Brief technical info, Nikon D700, 70-200mm f2.8 VR, exposed and developed Fuji graphics film (we use it for our PCB manufacturing) was used as a neutral density filter – unfortunately not a good as proper photographic filters but did the trick well enough, ISO 200, 1/200th second, f8. The other spots on the sun are sunspot activity. Hope you enjoy it and keep up the excellent writings!     Well, this message certainly captures all of the really important information I like to see (thing like "Famous Max" and "Excellent Writings" :-) So thanks to Steve Barrett from Down Under – I really, REALLY want to visit Australia one day and blow the froth off a few cold ones (Crocodile Dundee certainly had the right attitude). GOOD GRIEF!!! I've just discovered that there really once was an Ancient Order of Froth Blowers . This was a charitable organization whose mission (in addition to raising charitable contributions) was "To meet regularly in pubs or clubs to enjoy 'beer, beef, and baccy'" (where "pubs" means public houses or bars, and "baccy" means tobacco). Sadly this organization folded in 1931. This makes me sad. Now, this may be a tad presumptuous of me, but I feel that we should keep the name and spirit (pun intended) of this organization alive, and as far as I can see no one else has "stepped up to the bar" as it were (sorry, I can't help myself). Obviously I would feel a little silly leading an organization with a membership of one (also I'm already the head of several such organizations) ... so would anyone else be interested in joining me on this enterprise? The duties aren't onerous – all you have to do is quaff a few beers whenever you get the chance (quaffing is like regular drinking except you tend to spill more down your chest) and donate something to charity when the opportunity arises and you have some disposable cash to hand. Maybe this will take off and become a worldwide organization (stranger things have happened), in which case we will, at some stage, need a committee in charge of perfecting a secret handshake, another in charge of designing the official T-Shirt, and yet another tasked with creating our official club song (things like tattoos and official undergarments can wait until our membership passes some predefined number ... say three people). We also need official titles. Since this is my idea, I call dibs on Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Froth Blowers Worldwide . And since all of this was (unbeknownst to him) sparked by Steve Barrett, I think it only "fair do's" to offer him the title of Commander, Antipodean Froth Blowing Legions . What say you? Are you with me?  

As soon as I first learned about this year's Transit of Venus (I heard this several weeks before the event), I immediately ordered a bunch of special glasses to share with my family and friends (see my blog on it). All this past weekend and all day Monday, the skies here were really overcast. Similarly, on Tuesday morning – the day of the great event – the sky was covered in thick, gray clouds. As you can imagine, I actually wore my sad face a day before the event. When I arrived home, I went into the back garden with our two dogs ( Henri and Lili – or stupid dog #1 and #2 as I tend to think of them in my own mind) and two cats ( Rocket and Skitty – or stupid cat #1 and #2 as I tend to refer to them when my wife is out of earshot :-) On the bright side, bits of blue sky were visible here and there. On the down side these bits of blue sky were not in the same place as the setting sun as shown below:     We must have looked quite a sight – the animals and I – all looking hopefully at the sky, each of us wearing our protective glasses. I'm joking of course. I had thought that this would make a wonderful photo-opportunity, and I did have some spare glasses, but the beasts were having nothing to do with it (Henri indicated that the glasses clashed with his Hawaiian shirt and Rocket is simply too cool to be seen in anything less than designer shades). I was starting to lose hope, when ... could it be ... dare we hope... YES! ... the clouds started to part and the sun began to appear:     Just at this moment I noticed that our neighbor Sammy was sitting on his back porch watching me watching the sky, so I called him over, explained what was going on, and gave him a pair of glasses. I was actually amazed just how dark the glasses were – you couldn't see anything through them at all apart from the sun. I was also amazed by just how clear the sun was through the glasses. The picture below was taken using my iPhone looking through my protective glasses:   At first we were looking for Venus at the bottom of the sun, because that was how I had seen it depicted in all of the photographs I had seen. Also, there were still wisps of cloud passing in front of the sun, so we couldn't see anything apart from the sun itself. But then.... HURRAY ... the final vestiges of cloud disappeared and the dark spot of Venus was plain to see. If the truth be told, the image below is the same as the one above. I added the dark spot myself using Paint.net , but "cross-my-heart" this is just what it looked like with my naked (protected) eye.   I was worried that Gina was going to miss the occasion because she was working late, but she just made it in time to join me and Sammy and see Venus for herself. I know that – in the larger scheme of things – it wouldn't have mattered if we had missed seeing this Transit of Venus. One can find wonderful images of it on the Internet. But having said this, it was a real thrill to see it for myself, especially knowing that no human will see this sight again for more than 100 years...