Transit of Venus at Houge Park: 5 June

[Rob Jaworski]

The San Jose Astronomical Association will be at SJAA HQ, also known as Houge Park, with solar gear ready to observe and measure the transit of our second planet from the Sun, Venus. There will be filtered binoculars, project boxes affixed to telescopes, white light filters and H-alpha filtered scopes. Someone might even bring some eclipse glasses.

Date: 5 June 2012

Time: 2:30PM until about sundown

Science at NASA has a great 4 minute video about the transit, recommend you watch it to get a sense for the magnitude and importance of this event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nXv9YvkNyA

Remember, this is the last opportunity you will have to see Venus glide across the sun. The next time it will happen, nearly all of us will be gone. So come to Houge Park and experience the sheer awesomenificance of astronomy.

The SJAA will also have a presence for the transit at NASA Ames in Mt. View. If you are in the area, please stop by there to say Hello to Michael Packer, who heads up the SJAA Solar Observing program. If you can join him with your own solar set up, you are more than welcome to do so! Contact me or him for more info on the event at Ames.

See you in the bright daylight (for a change)!

Rob Jaworski
San Jose Astronomical Association
http://www.sjaa.net/
http://sanjoseastronomy.blogspot.com/
twitter: sj_astronomy
https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/club-view.cfm?Club_ID=49
event hotline: 408-559-1221
http://www.meetup.com/A-A-N-C/

[Rob J]

Hello,
Just a reminder that despite the wet weather to start off the week,
the SJAA still plans to be at San Jose's Houge Park tomorrow for the
Venus Transit. Official start time is 2:30PM at the regular location,
on the sidewalk just east of the tennis courts. The club's new Lunt
100mm H-Alpha scope will be there as will several other scopes and
projection devices. Bring yours, too, if you have them.

The SJAA will also have a presence at NASA Ames for their transit
event, thanks to Michael Packer and other members who will be present
with their solar systems, er, gear. It will happen in the large
parking lot near the visitor center, which is the big, white puffy-
looking, tent-looking structure. Keep an eye out for our proud SJAA
banner!

Yep, we'll be in two places at once. But this transit is the last for
a long time, so it's worth it.

Let me also share with you some information that SJAA member Teruo
Utsumi compiled about the transit:

++++++++++++++++
There's a blog on the Scientific American website that I found to be
an excellent intro to the the Venus Transit. It covers the history of
observing the transit with a touch of humor (about sauerkraut).
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/2012/05/25/sic-transit-venus/

One interesting note in the blog is that they are planning to use the
Hubble Telescope to do spectrographic studies of Venus during the
transit ... by
using the moon as a mirror!
http://news.discovery.com/space/hubble-will-use-the-moon-to-view-the-transit-of-venus-120507.html

Also there's an Apple iOS/Android app for the Venus Transit. It gives
the user time info about the transit and allows participation in
collecting timing of second and third contacts at the user's location
and access to the created global database. It's rather simple, but
might be of interest to folks. http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/getting-involved/phone-app
++++++++++++++++

Thanks for that, Teruo!

Hope to see good weather, hope to see you out there!

Rob Jaworski
San Jose Astronomical Association

On May 30, 9:14 pm, Rob Jaworski <jaworski...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> The San Jose Astronomical Association will be at SJAA HQ, also known
> as Houge Park, with solar gear ready to observe and measure the transit
> of our second planet from the Sun, Venus. There will be filtered
> binoculars, project boxes affixed to telescopes, white light filters and H-alpha filtered scopes. Someone might even bring some eclipse glasses.
>
> Date: 5 June 2012
> Time: 2:30PM until about sundown
>
> Science at NASA has a great 4 minute video about the transit,
> recommend you watch it to get a sense for the magnitude and importance

> of this event.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nXv9YvkNyA