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Truly once in a lifetime

Azure

By Azure
in The Astro Lounge

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spacecake

spacecake

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i'd love to see it but have no equipment what so ever the highest points to me are moel famua and snowdon although moel famau is nearer and would take less time to get to the top! does any one recommend some basic equipment to see it through please?

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JamesF

JamesF

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Isn't the transit of Venus a twice in a lifetime experience?

My daughter was born in 2005. What are her chances of seeing more than one? I think my son even deserves consideration since he was only fourteen months old at the last one.

James

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laser_jock99

laser_jock99

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I was on holiday in Portugal for the 2004 event. Bizzarely I was able to see something of the event by using one of those coin operated seaside binocular things to project an image onto paper! Passers by must have thought I was nuts?

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Azure

Azure

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I was on holiday in Portugal for the 2004 event. Bizzarely I was able to see something of the event by using one of those coin operated seaside binocular things to project an image onto paper! Passers by must have thought I was nuts?

Haha! Made my day that did! :)

Still need to get around to ordering that solar film, time's just flying by :)

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Delboy_Hog

Delboy_Hog

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The weather forecast is looking good for this coming week, so hopefully a bit of a chance to get some practise in with the solar kit...

Might have a dress rehearsal at sunrise at my preferred ToV viewing site on Saturday morning too. Figure it'd be good to get all the :) mistakes out of the way now, just in case we get clear weather for the actual event!

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SeedyF

SeedyF

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The weather forecast is looking good for this coming week, so hopefully a bit of a chance to get some practise in with the solar kit...

Might have a dress rehearsal at sunrise at my preferred ToV viewing site on Saturday morning too. Figure it'd be good to get all the :) mistakes out of the way now, just in case we get clear weather for the actual event!

Me too - well the practicing with the set up bit, not the getting up early :)

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Azure

Azure

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The weather forecast is looking good for this coming week, so hopefully a bit of a chance to get some practise in with the solar kit...

Might have a dress rehearsal at sunrise at my preferred ToV viewing site on Saturday morning too. Figure it'd be good to get all the :) mistakes out of the way now, just in case we get clear weather for the actual event!

That's a very good idea! I might have a go too - if I can get out of bed first :)

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Delboy_Hog

Delboy_Hog

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Well last weekend I completed my rehearsal for the transit! To bed at 11pm, alarm set for 1.30am (ouch!) Out of the house for 2am and arrived in Whitby at about 4am. Set up the trusty scope in front of one of the benches under the statue of Captain Cook and then take some photos of the surroundings.

Whitby is a nice place at any time, but in the half hour before sunrise it is very spectacular. Really glad I made the trip, got some lovely film footage of the sunrise and learned a boat-load about solar viewing in the process.

Lessons learned:

1) If I want to get there and get the scope sligned and tracking venus, I'll need to be there earlier - probably about an hour - by about 4am it was way too light to see any stars to align by! Dang it gets light early at this time of year! :)

2) There are no public loos open in Whitby at that time of day. I haven't figured out quite what to do about this yet. :hello2: Drinking less coffee before I set off might limit the problem :p

3) Take the wife's camera as well as my own! Having one for scenary shots and one attached to the scope will mean a lots less faffing around with the flimsy digital camera holder thingamy!

4) The sun rises at 4.38 (on my watch) and quite a bit further North of East than I was expecting! The sun was not strong enough to show through the solar filter until about 2-3 minutes after the sun started to rise. Thankfully, the light 'brewing' on the horizon made it clear where the sun was going to rise, so i had time to use the finderscope and slew to that part of the horizon, before putting the cap on that. The sea went a lovely orangey-pink in the 30seconds before the sun appeared - even to my stoney colourblind eyes it was most beautiful!

Still can't decide whether to film the whole event or take a series of photos, say one every 30 seconds / a minute. My camera can perform at a higher quality when taking photos, so that might be the deciding factor - what is everyone else doing...weather permitting?!

(Thinks: Come on weather - all I need is a couple of hours on Wednesday morning, surely that's not too much to ask?!)

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Azure

Azure

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Some good tips there Hog, glad you learned something!

Unfortunately the weather isn't looking too good! Rain or at least clouds are forecast for much of the land - I'll probably still try to get a view, but I'd hate to go all the way to the coast that early and then not even be able to see anything :)

Fingers crossed for a break in the clouds! :hello2:

- AZ

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stonemonkeylives

stonemonkeylives

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Some good tips there Hog, glad you learned something!

Unfortunately the weather isn't looking too good! Rain or at least clouds are forecast for much of the land - I'll probably still try to get a view, but I'd hate to go all the way to the coast that early and then not even be able to see anything :)

Fingers crossed for a break in the clouds! :hello2:

- AZ

I know what you mean, I just checked the weather and it brought a little tear to my eyes :p will keep checking and hoping though. Going site searching in the morning and was planning to make it an all nighter (I work nights, so easy enough) so hopefully might get some views.

sent from Gherkin Muncher mk .III (commonly known as a Galaxy S2)

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squeaky

squeaky

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I'll be going to the site a few of us in Sunny Suffolk will be using regardless of the forecast. We don't always get the weather that's been forecast around here. The general area might... but often local bits are better.

Besides - a meet is a meet even if you don't get a sky :hello2:

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SeedyF

SeedyF

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Delboy - that is excellent, and made me think of a couple of extra things I need to plan for.

I too would have two hour drive to the coast so I've booked into a hotel, a 4am start is bad enough, I can't face the prospect of putting a two hour drive in front of it. :hello2:

I'm planning a scouting mission the evening before to check the location is perfect and actually have two to choose from so I'll look at them both. One of them is Broadstairs harbour - which at least has some loos!! I bet they're locked overnight though.

I should really run through a practice set up because I was hoping to observe the start visually. Once the wife and I have both had a good view slot the DSLR into place and take some stills. As I don't have liveview focussing is a major pain. The focus tube is marked where I need to move it to but I will still need to fine focus and that means taking test shots and viewing them on the laptop. It takes a few minutes to get it right, time isn't really on our side.

Finally I hoped to get the webcam on it - but that may be a luxury I can't afford because of the time to switch cameras and get the focus again. But it would be good to have a close cropped image of Venus leaving the sun's disc - i.e. seeing a little chunk out of the solar limb.

But then again the weather forecast.......... :)

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Azure

Azure

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I'll be going to the site a few of us in Sunny Suffolk will be using regardless of the forecast. We don't always get the weather that's been forecast around here. The general area might... but often local bits are better.

Besides - a meet is a meet even if you don't get a sky :)

Where is this site? Just curious because I myself live in Suffolk :hello2:

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