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From: Keith Williams (no email)
Date: Tue Jun 08 2004 - 04:13:12 EDT
I guess to the envy of all, from Kuwait I can report 100% clear sky and
a perfect view for as long as I could stand - starting about 0820 local
time. I used my sextant with a 4X scope and had a perfect view of a
little dot creeping onto the surface at about 0530 using clockface
description. It's a tiny little thing, this planet Venus, but as Lee
says, very distinct. Hope we all remember Captain Cook today.
I tried what seems a neat trick from "Femy", a weather lady on CNN -
cover a mirror with paper thru which one small hole has been made, to
project a reflection of the sun.for me the problem was that I had to
look at the reflection on a surface which was already very highly lit by
ambient light, so I had to squint against that and couldn't make out the
dot.
Binos at 7X power needed a firm support, I couldn't keep the image
steady enough to see the dot on my paper "screen".
Keith Williams
-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List
[mailto:] On Behalf Of Lee Martin
Sent: Tuesday, 8 June 2004 09:57
To:
Subject: My View of the Transit of Venus
It has been drought here in southern NSW, Australia. Total of 40mm of
rain in the last 6 months, crystal clear days and nights, week after
week as we slip into winter.
Today, low cloud, building and breaking during the day. The transit
commenced around 3.14.33pm local time (EST)....heavy cloud blocked all
view.
Intermittent rays of sunshine for the next hour and a bit. Teasing.
Then at around 4.20pm, the clouds around the sun cleared for a little
less than 5 minutes. Only time enough to take in the phenomena. An
absolutely brilliant view of the transit through my sextant telescope
and shades. While I had looked at animations of the transit, I had not
expected the shape of venus to be so "definite" on the sun's surface.
At 4.30 the sun disappeared completely behind clouds and then the local
hills.
So, how did others fare?
Lee Martin
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