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Special Ed
Postmaster
Reged: 05/18/03
Loc: Greenbrier Co., WV 38N, 80W
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Plans for Sketching the ToV?
#5255371 - 06/04/12 09:56 PM
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Hi Folks,
I hope that many of you have clear skies and are able to sketch tomorrow's Transit of Venus. This event is rare so I thought I'd share my plan for the transit based on my experience in 2004. This might help you with your own plans.
Most of us will only see part of the transit. If you are fortunate enough to see the ingress or egress contacts, look for the aureole, the bright arc or ring on the limb of Venus as it crosses the solar limb which reveals the atmosphere of our sister planet.
This crossing of the solar limb is accomplished in ~18 minutes, so you'll have to work fast. I'm going to try for a series of close up WL sketches during ingress, so I'm going to make rough field sketches with notes and do finished drawings later based on my field sketches. Magnification for these sketches will have to be 100x or greater based on conditions.
A WL full disk sketch can be done at a more leisurely pace once Venus has moved fully in front of the solar disk. This can be at 100x or less. A 4 inch template is good.
I am fortunate to have an H-alpha scope, too. I hope to prepare a template (4 inch) of at least the basic disk, AR's, and filaments beforehand in order to save time (these features usually don't change much over a couple hours time). Then I will include the prominences and the position of Venus on the solar disk as they appear in real time. I usually can't push the PST above a magnification of 40x or 50x.
This is how I hope to approach the ToV. You might have different ideas or maybe reading this will make your thoughts come together. Whatever the case, good luck with your transit observation. 
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chrisrnuttall
Professor Emeritus
Reged: 12/29/10
Loc: York, England
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Re: Plans for Sketching the ToV?
[Re: Special Ed]
#5255649 - 06/05/12 03:57 AM
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Michael
Very useful advice in my opinion.
I would say don't go too high on your magnification for ingress or egress as I did in '04, once it starts you don't want to be messing about with eyepiece changes and re-focussing, the scene changes in a matter of seconds during this phase; Maybe 200X if you feel conditions are good. Venus is huge now and there is not much by way of 'fine' detail to see here, the aureole and the black drop effect are quite big things really.
Be ready and be looking through the eyepiece a few minutes before first contact, I missed the very first few seconds on a transit of Mercury once by simply not being ready in time.
Enjoy, and post your results for those who are clouded out.
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Ed D
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/30/10
Loc: Sunny South Florida
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Re: Plans for Sketching the ToV?
[Re: chrisrnuttall]
#5255688 - 06/05/12 05:48 AM
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Provided that Mother Nature is kind to us in South Florida, I'll be using a solar projection setup using my Celestron Travel Scope. I'll probably see the ingress and part of the transit from my location, and taking notes to compose a sketch later in the night. Again, if the weather cooperates.
Ed D
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