Observing Notesfrom the Tuckahoe IrregularsLate Monday night the skies in Tidewater began slowly clearing. Knowing I had to awaken very early Tuesday morning to (hopefully) view the Venus transit I decided to not stargaze. But wait, the sky was looking pretty darn clear, so out came the 10" f/4.7 Dobsonian. Ganymede's shadow on mighty Jupiter was reminiscent of the event I was counting on seeing across the solar surface Tuesday. Moving the scope away from Jupiter my next sight was Comet C2001 Q4 NEAT. Though it is still quite large, and high in the sky in Ursa Major the comet is definitely diminishing in brightness compared to the view in mid- May. Afterwards I slewed the scope over to Xi UMa, a very close and challenging double star of equally bright stars. Suddenly, the stars disappeared as another wave of thick clouds rolled in. I packed up the scope and went to bed at 1:00am EDT. I set the clock for 4:30 am EDT. Even it I could have slept immediately I would only get 3-1/2 hours of sleep, but I was just too excited to sleep. Before I knew it the clock was sounding, and jumped out of bed and ran outdoors (forgetting to slip on my britches) to check the sky conditions, only to find it completely cloudy. Would it be a lost cause? Regardless, my truck was already packed with equipment. Bob Hitt and Judy Winstead soon arrived at my doorstep and we were briskly off to the Virginia Beach, VA boardwalk. By 5:50 am we saw a very weak and extremely redden solar image immerge from a thin cloudbank. At this point the sun was so weakened we could view it direct with binoculars with no filters. Oh my, I wish you could have seen that view of Venus across the solar surface through the 20x120 Nikko Battleship binoculars. It was a view I shall not soon forget. The sun was deep red in color, and Venus appeared as a much large than expected black circular dot. Several Virginia Beach tourist gathered, some knowing about the event, and others who just came to the boardwalk to watch the sunrise. Everyone was just blown away when peering into those giant binoculars. I wanted to spend time taking photographs through the big eyes, but couldn't resist sharing the view with passersby. Within a half-hour the sun had brightened sufficiently to require the use of proper filtration. The view still lovely, and completely cloud free. I also had a Meade ETX-90 set up for viewing and photography as well as a 40mm Coronado SunScope hydrogen-alpha telescope. Each instrument provided stunning views. I managed to take 35mm print and slides, as well as about 60 digital pictures. Whether the pictures come out perfectly or not is, well, a moot point after the aesthetically beautiful visual view. No photograph could ever hope to compete what our eyes saw witnessed today. Kent Blackwell |