Announcing the Venus Transit 2004 Survey. I’ve uploaded a file to the IFAS site with the name “Venus Transit Survey Sheet”. It’s a straightforward MS word document. On the sheet are some questions concerning the events of next Tuesday. Questions cover topics like what instrument you used, whether or not you saw first contact, second contact, and so on. There is some science involved too where people are asked to calculate the a u on the vt-2004 site.

I would be very grateful if persons from each society who are involved in transit observations could fill in this form and return it to me. If you are involved in running transit watches for the public, feel free to distribute this sheet among the people who are there. The return address is available by sending a private message to myself, or emailing spculleton at yahoo dot ie. We could learn a lot from this survey, so please take the time to fill it in.

What’s in it for you? There may be an observing certificate awarded to people who complete the survey and return it. This will be discussed and decided over the course of the summer.

Thanks on behalf of the Observing Certificates Working Group.
Michael O’Connell, Seannie Morris, Albert White, John Flannery, Shane Culleton.

Shane,
Good idea,
Will do.

Thanks on behalf of the Observing Certificates Working Group.
Michael O’Connell, Seannie Morris, Albert White, John Flannery, Shane Culleton.

Well, Shane, you've done all the work so far! Well done on taking the first step of the Certification programme!

We're following right behind you! (a hint of your impending doom as ObservoCerts Chairperson!)



Seanie.

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The address to get those Venus Transit Survey Sheets to is:

7 Forest Park avenue,
Borris Great,
Portlaoise,
Co. Laois.

Get them to me as soon as possible. Looking forward to complaints from the postman regarding his extra workload!

The Observing Certificates Working Group
(With 96 members we are now the largest Observing Certificates Working Group in the world per head of population!)

Dave, I've mailed the survey shhet to you using my wife's eircom.net account (knicking her mail, not mailing her knickers!).

If anyone else has trouble downloading the survey shhet let me know through pm or e-mail, both available through "my profile" on this site. Seanie Morris was first one back; thanks Seanie. I especially liked his estimation of the AU; "Very Large".

I especially liked his estimation of the AU; "Very Large".

What can I say? Short, sweet, and to the point!

:wink:

Seanie

Shane,

Just posted mine. I'd certainly encourage others to do the same.

After timing the second and third contact, I entered my results in the vt-2004.org website. I was amazed to find that my results yielded an AU to an accuracy of 0.2% - amazing considering how simple it was to undertake the experiment. Certainly a well worth exercise.

Michael