Transit of Venus; events.

[cotterless45]

I suppose it's elf 'N saftey , you don't want the unskilled to be supervising sungazing. It seems a shame that there's no mention of the event in the media.

I was out at 3.45am today driving around to find a viewing site for a small group.

It was a great pleasure to watch the great orange ball rise over a clear NE horizon.

I felt like early man,cold,hungry and thirsty,but thrilled by the lighting of the sky and Vega disappearing overhead (must be going simple in the head!!).Nearly sharpened my spear for a day's hunting!!!Yo Tesco mammoth burgers!

Just hope the 6th is going to be as good and that the cafe is open early.

Nick.

[callump]

The RAS has a map on their website, but not many events listed there at the moment.

http://www.ras.org.uk/education-and-careers/for-everyone/125

Callum

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Looking at that map, there isnt a planned event anywhere near me. Hopefully some people from the local astro club will be going out, otherwise it will be a lonely night.

[sanmatt]

I'm going to Chipping Norton, dragging the kids out of bed for it They can help carry me scope.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Im going to set up around 3.30. be there in plenty of time, bit of night time viewing before hand. Need to get a tea flask though

[ixalon]

Planning on view it from Blackheath, but looks like those pesky clouds are going to be in the way

http://www.flamsteed.info/fasTransitVenus2012.pdf

[x6gas]

Joined up with the group from Abingdon Astronomical Society in a car park off of the A34 south of Oxford.

A few glimpses of the moon while we were setting up were encouraging but there was a lot of cloud.

Anyway, at about 5.45am about a third of the sun came briefly into view through the cloud and obligingly enough there was the black dot of venus. I managed to see it for maybe 5 seconds! By the time I'd rotated the diagonal for a young lad next to me to have a look, the clouds had covered it and that was that!

Of course, at 6:05am - just ten minutes after the show, the cloud cleared and gave us a completely unobstructed view of the whole solar disc. So I spend 15 minutes or so looking at sun spots and then packed up.

At least I saw it!

[PreludeToADream]

I was awake at 4am this morning, looked out and saw only clouds. Persevered regardless with the binos and went out for an hour - with success! There were 3 breaks in the cloud for 30ish seconds for each, where I got to see the distinctive dot of Venus making its way across the Sun. Chuffed to have seen it, as I didn't catch the '04 transit.