My Lame Picture of the Transit of Venus

[Scrolling Days]

So we have a nice clear blue sky tonight, here in western New York. As I'm sure many of you know, tonight the planet Venus is traveling directly in front of the sun for a period of time (a few hours, I think), which is extremely rare.

Since there is no safe way to directly look at the sun to see it, sans welder's glasses or an apprpriate solar filter, I Googled a way to look at it indirectly.

By carefully positioning my binoculars toward the sun (without looking through them!), I was able to project an image of the sun onto a white piece of cardboard about 12 inches away. It actually worked really well, and we could see Venus as clear as day (it's the little black dot on the bottom, believe it or not).

The actual image on the paper was in perfect focus and looked really cool. My wife tried to take a picture of the image with our camera, but for whatever reason, it didn't want to get into focus.....but here it is, anyway!

My kids got a real kick out of it, and before long we had other kids from the neighborhood coming over for a glimpse. Hoepfully we'll all (or at least the kids) live another 100 years to see the next time this will happen!

[Scrolling Days]

PS: If anyone wants to try this tonight, make sure you point the lenses of the binoculars toward the sun, and the eyepiece toward the paper. If you cover one of the "eyes" the image will be even better.

Remember......don't look at the sun!!

[wood-n-things]

Thanks for sharing. it is cloudy and raining here today and tonight so I would have missed it.

[jim_mex]

Hi Shawn - you done good! We were all set up to have a look after Kevin finished school mid afternoon but then the clouds rolled in and put paid to our plans. To think that we've just had a week of gorgeous clear skies and yet today it decided to rain!

It's great the kids got a buzz out of this event instead of just looking at photos on the internet. Kudos to dad and mum for arranging things!

[Jim McDonald]

Bad sky conditions here also.

Was going to get a welders helmet at work, but the rain started just as I was getting off work.

[Arcy]

Nicely done! I've heard rumors of a big glowing orange spot behind the clouds, but I'm pretty sure it's just a myth.

--Rob

[Powakee]

Shawn
That's a great thing you did and I bet your kids really enjoyed. However, you should not be concerned about looking into or staring at the sun. It will not harm you. It is not dangerous. It will help you see the light of life. That's what "they" are trying to keep from you. I have spent a significant time staring at the sun over the years. The worst thing that has happened to me as a result is, among some other strange things, I have become a scroll sawyer. The way I "see" it - things could be worse.

John

[Scrolling Days]

LOL, I hope you're being tongue-in-cheek, John! Otherwise, I have to say I'm impressed that you're able to scrollsaw so nicely being blind and all.