So with more than a little excitement, I dragged my friend Darren out of bed and we loaded up the car with the telescope, filters and raincoats. We left my house at about 4.20am, and headed to the city to pick up another friend, Brendan. After that our basic plan was to drive towards the sunrise and hopefully find somewhere with a low horizon... Ireland is so freaking hilly! And we didn't have too much time to spare, as sunrise was 5.16am and the transit was ending in Ireland at 5.54am!
We drove down the dual carriageway, and eventually found a spot where the horizon was low enough. We pulled off the road and parked in a lane way. As we set up the telescope, we noticed that there was a gap in the clouds just where the sun was rising. I put the solar filter on and aimed at the sun. Which is significantly more difficult than I had expected. You can see nothing with the filter on and the sun is so bright it makes the red dot finder pretty much useless. But after a minute or two of faffing around, I managed to line it up.
On glancing through the scope however, there was a tiny thin band of cloud cover the area where Venus should have been visible. Gutted. We waited and watched until 5.54am, but we had no luck. As the sun rose, it hit a huge cloud and all but disappeared.
It was pretty disappointing, but we still had a fun morning! The sunrise was beautiful, no-one damaged their eyes, and we had a good laugh in the car. And you know, only 105 years til the next transit!
So again, it was back to virtual astronomy! I spent a while when I returned home looking at photos and videos online. And boy are there tons of those...
We drove down the dual carriageway, and eventually found a spot where the horizon was low enough. We pulled off the road and parked in a lane way. As we set up the telescope, we noticed that there was a gap in the clouds just where the sun was rising. I put the solar filter on and aimed at the sun. Which is significantly more difficult than I had expected. You can see nothing with the filter on and the sun is so bright it makes the red dot finder pretty much useless. But after a minute or two of faffing around, I managed to line it up.
On glancing through the scope however, there was a tiny thin band of cloud cover the area where Venus should have been visible. Gutted. We waited and watched until 5.54am, but we had no luck. As the sun rose, it hit a huge cloud and all but disappeared.
(Darren and Brendan star in Sunrise Kingdom)
It was pretty disappointing, but we still had a fun morning! The sunrise was beautiful, no-one damaged their eyes, and we had a good laugh in the car. And you know, only 105 years til the next transit!
So again, it was back to virtual astronomy! I spent a while when I returned home looking at photos and videos online. And boy are there tons of those...
(Source)
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(This is one seriously epic video - source)
So despite not actually getting to see Venus, we had a great day. After getting a few hours sleep, we headed to the beach with my sister, her boyfriend and flatmate, and had a barbecue! Good times all round!
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