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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The map is centered on the part of the Earth with the best view of the transit of Venus. Persons in eastern Australia, most of eastern and northern Asia, Alaska, and the Yukon will enjoy a view of the entire transit of Venus. Hawai’i will draw many transit of Venus tourists because all of the transit is visible with the transit ending at sunset, surely to be a spectacular view. The peak of Mauna Kea with the giant telescopes will be a perfect venue.

If you are in North America and northwestern South America, you will see the start of the transit in the afternoon and the transit will still be in progress at sunset. An ideal photographic opportunity will be to capture Venus within the Sun’s disk at sunset. Find a scenic location with a clear western horizon for this special view, such as a beach on the Pacific coast.

transitofvenus.nl/wp/

[-=CROMAN=-]

So the question is where is Paulie going to be?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I say...

Pailie will be in a Transit coma.

Nice.

[Centaur]

Nicely drawn, Joe! Thank you for your fine work. With the aid of my computer I've drawn preview graphics for the transit as seen from sixteen cities. One is for Chicago's Adler Planetarium. The view would essentially be the same anywhere in Chicagoland. The diagrams can be seen at www.CurtRenz.com/venustransit

[Paulie pchris00]

Oct 18, 2011 9:50:18 GMT -6 -=CROMAN=- said:

So the question is where is Paulie going to be?

Unless a sponsor would like to donate $5,000-$10,000 to Paulie's 2012 Venus Transit Science Mission, I will probably be observing the beginning of the transit from Conway Observatory (assuming clear skies). I want to work out reciprocal agreements with observatories and astronomy clubs within day's drive as a means to reduce the chances of being clouded out. The idea is to get as many dedicated transit observers as possible to locations with good weather on transit day. The Calumet Astronomical Society board shot my idea down when I first proposed it, but some members are starting to see the wisdom of the idea. I might try again at next Monday's board meeting. If that fails, I need to start making my own arrangements and finding contacts at other Midwest astronomy clubs. This is a last chance observation, and while few astronomers will have the resources for a Captain Cook-like expedition, I think most will gladly take off work for a day trip to a good weather site.

So, the answer to your question, Rich, is that I will be wherever I can find a clear sky within an 8 hour drive, preferably at or near an observatory. I'm making no promises to anybody but myself on this one.

[Paulie pchris00]

Hey Curt, how about that view from Hawaii? Or Sydney? Pretty cool!

[Centaur]

Oct 19, 2011 8:47:19 GMT -6 Paulie pchris00 said:

Hey Curt, how about that view from Hawaii? Or Sydney? Pretty cool!

Honolulu and Sydney are among my preview graphics. The transit path loops are indeed cool at those sites. The timings vary among locations since parallax is a factor. My diagrams utilize horizontal (alt-az) coordinates which explains the apparent curving of Venus' path due the Earth's rotation. I currently provide previews for eighteen cities, but will add more as the event nears. Here's the link to my webpage for the transit: www.CurtRenz.com/venustransit

[Paulie pchris00]

Oct 18, 2011 9:50:18 GMT -6 -=CROMAN=- said:

So the question is where is Paulie going to be?

After months of agonizing over where to observe the Venus transit from, I finally have an answer. Obviously, my two top choices were our spot outside of Adler, and Conway Observatory. They both have advantages and disadvantages, but none so great as to disqualify it as an observing site. I was ready to just flip a coin to decide, but circumstances changed.

At Calumet Astronomical Society's January board meeting I was named to the open post of Observing Director. That puts me on the short list of planners for our transit observation. I will need to be at the observatory to make sure everything goes according to plan. I'm not thrilled to have my decision on where to observe the transit taken away, but I've had my eye on that position since last summer, and this is one of the responsibilities that comes with it.

For the CA crew that will be observing outside Alder, a big part of me will wish I was there with you. Wherever every CA observes the transit from, I wish you all clear skies.

[erikruud]

I am planning on being at the "CA West" site at Hickory Knolls in Saint Charles.

[Paulie pchris00]

I figured you guys might do something out there. Cool. We're going to have area wide coverage.

[Centaur]

Paulie & Erik, if you'll provide the longitude, latitude and altitude of your observing sites, I'll create transit previews and post them here.

Meanwhile, on my website I've increased the number of cities with transit previews from 18 to 44. The Chicago graphic is specific for the site of the Adler Planetarium, but timings other than that for sunset would vary by no more than a few seconds throughout Chicagoland.

Link to transit previews: www.CurtRenz.com/venustransit

[patrickm]

Paulie, congrats! What does this position entail?

[Centaur]

Feb 18, 2012 16:38:32 GMT -6 patrickm said:

Paulie, congrats! What does this position entail?

Indeed, congratulations Paulie! I'll bet it pays at least as much as Dave's assistant director job.

[Paulie pchris00]

The pay is the same, possibly less.

All it means is that I'm in charge of putting together observing sessions for members. Our publicity chairman handles our public events. I figure the transit falls under both of our jurisdictions. This is going to be as much for the members as the public, and I've posted suggestions for the members on our private message board, pretty much like I've done here. The president will be in charge of procuring equipment, but I now have some influence in what the society acquires for the transit.

[Paulie pchris00]

Oct 18, 2011 12:47:17 GMT -6 Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe said:

I say...

Paulie will be in a Transit coma.

I wasn't in a transit coma, but somebody else was. From Andrea Wulf's book Chasing Venus about the 1760's transits:

In Philadelphia, America Philosophical Society had succeeded in mounting their three observations. American astronomer David Rittenhouse woke early on the transit day to see the sky gleaming with a "purity of atmosphere." A large group of Philadelphians had arrived at his farm in Norriton to watch the transit. Then, just after two o'clock in the afternoon, as Venus readied herself, Rittenhouse became so over-excited that he collapsed and fainted, missing the beginning of the most important event of his scientific life. When he regained consciousness, he quickly grabbed his telescope to discover that Venus had already entered the Sun, but calmed himself sufficiently to take some observations.

It's been over a month since our Transit of Venus observations, and I'm just as obsessed now as I was the month before transit; maybe more so. I just finished reading Andrea Wulf's book Chasing Venus, which I bought June 1, just days before the transit, and started seriously reading a few days after. I have a few thoughts on the astronomers and observers of the 18th century transits of Venus.

Within hours of last month's ToV, most of us had pictures posted on the internet, and full written accounts posted within a few days. Even though travel and communication were much slower in the 1760's, the global effort to get the transit data to the scientific communities around the world was monumental. Yes, there were expeditions to far flung regions of the planet, and some of those observers left the world wondering about their data for more than a year, but most astronomers were at or near their own observatories gathering data. This information was quickly distributed among the collaborating scientific societies. By the end of the summer of 1769 (it was a June transit) most societies had read the data and accounts of other European astronomers, and even some reports from the American colonies. By the end of the year, the only major data unreported was from Chappe d' Auteroche (died in Baja Mexico; only two French and one Spanish member of his team survived to return his documents), Cook (on an extended mission to explore the South Pacific, and not expected back right away), and Le Gentil (who had been clouded out, and nothing to contribute on the transit). With the rush to share information, I'm sure most of the 18th century transit astronomers would have been very comfortable with Twitter, Youtube, and the rest of the digital information age, had it been available to them. In respect to getting information out there for the world to see, we might have faster access, with a wider audience, but as astronomers, we definitely inherited the desire to quickly spread our transit observations from the astronomers of the 1760's. They were the first generation to widely observe the Venus transits, and part of my ToV obsession was not only to observe the transit, but to connect with the previous generations of ToV astronomers. Venus in solar transit has come and gone now twice in my lifetime, but the more I learn of the first six Venus transits observed by humans, the more I feel connected to all the astronomers who observed- or tried to observe- a Transit of Venus before me.




Hillary holding my copy of Chasing Venus on transit day. It might seem silly, but I'm glad I had it with me that day, even though I hadn't read it yet. I recommend it for anybody wanting to dig deeper into ToV history.

[Centaur]

Thanks for your fine book report, Paulie. I'll have to check it out. Meanwhile, keep exercising and eating right so you can report to us on the next Venus transit in 2117.

[Paulie pchris00]

Jul 9, 2012 10:25:32 GMT -6 Centaur said:

Meanwhile, keep exercising and eating right so you can report to us on the next Venus transit in 2117.

Yeah, right. I might be around for the Mercury transit (it's only 1,399 days, hours, minutes away), and the total solar eclipse of 2117, but I'm not waiting around for a century. I'm already old and broken down. I really don't even care if I'm around for Apophis. I've had my two transits.

[Paulie pchris00]

Proboards just gave me an Amazon ad for Nick Lomb's Transit of Venus: 1639 to the Present, Wulf's Chasing Venus, and Mark Anderson's The Day the World Discovered the Sun. I just bought The Day the World Discovered the Sun not even two hours ago. Sorry Amazon: I already own all of those books.

[Paulie pchris00]

<1,300 days until the Mercury transit of May 9, 2016.

More precisely, 1,299 days, 21 hours, 44 minutes.

Not that I'm counting or anything. (My desktop gadget is doing that for me).