Hi,

After listening to Robert Hill give a very entunsiastic presentation about the transit of venus I think I should post some more details about the program that the ESO are promoting.

Firstly as I'm sure most of you know, at 6.20 am on June 8th, Venus will pass in front of the Sun, the first time it has done so in 122 years.

If people are just made aware of this, they might go as far as getting some eclipse shades and having a look to see what all the fuss is about. And what will they see? A little black speckmoving very very slowly across the sun - another boring astronomy event. So rather than just hype the event as some people seem to do in the media here, the ESO have put together an outreach program aimed at all levels, there should be something for everyone, and everyone is invited to participate.

The ESO website for the transit is www.vt-2004.org. The Irish node is being organised by the Astronomical Sciences group of Ireland (www.arm.ac.uk/asgi/) who will be launching their own website for the event in the next couple of days - ww.venustransit.ie .

Schools will be able to get in contact with the Irish Organisers, Robert Hill in Armagh Planetarium is the main contact, and they will provide details and ideas on how to observe the even, and how to bring the event into the curriculum.

So what kinds of thing are the ESO doing?

* Image gallery - Not only for images of the event, but also for images of the schools preparation, and images and interpretations by the kids themselves. The ESO website has a picture from a 3 1/2 year old so there are no excuses. The ESO competition is aimed mainly at younger children, but this can be taken as seriously as you want, inspiration for part of youe leving cert portfollio?

* Video Gallery - This will not just be an video of a black dot projected onto some cardboard! One approach that students might like to take would be to make a documentay for their media studies course on the history of the event, and their preparations, and their conclusions afterwards.

* Science - A major goal of the observation side will be to determine the AU. Again this can be a simple or as complicated as you like. At the simplest level you can send your location and times of the major events to the ESO and they will do the calculations. For the applied maths students they can work out the calculus for themselves!

* History - Although the history of the event is covered there are no events tied to the idea published on the website. But there is scope to get the history teacher involved (assuming he is not outside with an LX90!). Transits have been predicted since 1631, and since then there have been a couple every century, this could easily be built into a class on the development of scientific thought through this time for example. Also if the drama teacher is left out there is plenty of scope to do a short play on the observations down the centuries - any excuse to get into costume!

For more ideas and details see the ESO page.

However there are problems that need to be worked through. Firstly the message has to get out to teachers and schools, which is something the ASGI will work on. But even then teachers who are not familiar with astronomy may find this too `intimidating` a project to take on. And thats where the amateur astronomers come in.

The transit is more than a one day event, its something that can be built up to with the science, art and history of the event. By contacting your local school and offering to help out you will be of valuable assistance to the teachers involved. There is a lot of information to digest about the transit, and its a lot for teachers to plan on their own, but with the help of a local expert (relativly speaking!) they will have someone to put their questions to, someone to help out explaining it to the kids and at worst someone to blame if it all doesnt go flawlessly! Even though some of us dont trust the Irish weather and are going to sunnier places to see the transit, we can still get involved with schools in preparation for the event - so no excuses

Societies are also asked to register their events with the ESO and ASGI so that a web page can be made up of all the events that will be taking place so that members of the public can go along to watch. I expect this list will be made available to the meia also. Astronomy Ireland is bound to have several of its `members` organising events, so that alone should be enough encouragment for many of you to outdo them

There are probably someof you reading this who dont have the means to observe the Sun. And this is a problem for schools also, so Robert is trying to get each shool sponsored to have a solarscope (www.solarscope.org). This is a few peices of cardboard with a mirror so that the image of the sun gets projected onto a piece of card that people can gather around and watch. They cost EUR80, so if your school/club is interested in buying one, or you would like to sponsor one for your school then get in touch with Robert.

There are however two problems. Firstly many schools are on holidays or having exams at this time. So the work needs to be done now to get people interested enough to open the school and come in on the day for the event.

Secondly, we need clear skies, and its Ireland so there is a reasonable chance there wont be. But the ESO folks have thought of that too. Even if its cloudy the ESO site will have webcams set up around the world so that you can log in and watch the event happening in sunnier places!

So to start each club should go to the ESO transit site for Ireland vt-2004.org/vt-net/vt-net-ireland.html and register. So far Galway Astronomy Club are the onlyones to do so! And then contact your local schools, or your kids scools, or the local church or where ever! and start helping to plan for the transit.

Cheers,
~Al

p.s. Can we keep this thread (www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=665) for discussing events and plans etc. and use other threads for observations calculations etc. - Cheers, ~Al (solar system mod. - I will move your posts!)

From Galway Astronomy Club on another thread:

The next Galway Astronomy Club meeting takes place on Monday April 26th. For this we welcome back Professor Mike Redfern of NUI Galway who gave a very interesting talk on the subject of "Black Holes"at our Connacht Starparty last January. At this meeting he will talk about the up-coming June 8th Transit of Venus. Meeting venue is the Forster Court Hotel in Galway City Centre @8pm . New members always welcome.

For further details phone Martin Quirke at 091528347

Hi folks,

46 days to go!

Any more events that people would like to tell the world about?

http://www.vt-2004.org./vt-net/vt-net-ireland.html is looking fairly sparce.

Cheers,
~Al

Hi folks,

Some more new info about the vt-2004 plans are available at www.vt-2004.org/Media/vt-comm-02.html

There is a photo gallery which some of you may like to upload your pictures to at
www.vt-2004.org/photos/

The gallery (www.vt-2004.org/Gallery/) is now open to all ages, so even if you cant get a photo of venus you can submit artwork here. There will be 25 T-shrits as prizes for the best exhibits.

Of particular interest to any of you talking to schools, giving talks etc will be the animations page www.vt-2004.org/animations/index.html, which has some quicktime movies explaining the transit.

Finally as your organise events with your clubs/schools please post details here and with the www.vt-2004.org site.

39 days to go!

Cheers,
~Al

Dear All,

The Teachers' Guide is now available at www.vt-2004.org/Education/vt-tg.doc.
Please spread the word!

Cheers,

Ian

Hi,

Me again!

I kow that some of you are planning transit watches for June 8th. So can you please post details of these, even if they are still sketchy?

The Irish Steering Committee of the vt-2004 project will soon be publicising the event, and it would be great to be able to help publicise events from IFAS clubs.

Cheers,
~Al

Hi,

I've sent this out to the clubs email addresses, but just in case I've missed someone I'll post here too. You can contact me at albert.white at sun.com

Cheers,
~Al

----
Hi folks,

There was a meeting of the National Steering Committee about the venus transit today (www.venustransit.ie) and there are a few matters arising from that that I said I would discus with you.

Firstly, we would like to get correct contact information for you all for the www.venustransit.ie web page. Press and Media will be directed to this site, and people around the country will be directed there to find out about their local events. So please let me know the
Name
Telephone number
Area/Address
e-mail
web address
of a contact person in your society so that people will be able to contact you about the event.

Secondly, can you send me a postal address for you club. I need this to send you some posters and flyers from the ESO so that you can display them where you tihnk they will be of most use for promoting the event and your clubs (libraries etc.).

Thirdly, it wont be possible for the steering committee to contact every media outlet in the country, instead they will try to focus is on National Media. Ian Elliott and Tom Ray should be on the RTE radio tonight in fact. So we would like you to contact your local radio and papers to publicise the event, there is plenty of source material on the venustransit.ie site for them to use, and most radio/papers would rather have a local person speaking.

Fourthly (I'm nearly finished!) Can you please put a link from your websites to the venustransit site? something similar to what I have on the www.irishastronomy.org/ilpac site.

Fifthly, there is a photo gallery on the www.vt-2004.org site. Some members of Irish Clubs have produced some excellent venus related pictures on the IFAS website, and we would encourage you to post them at this european wide site also. There is a wealth of information on that site so please pass it on to your members, in particular the section designed for Amateur Astronomers www.vt-2004.org/Amateurs/ . And of course you can join in the discussion on the transit at the IFAS site www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=665 .

And finally, can you please register your group, and any events that you plan to run with the www.vt-2004.org website. In particular the Irish node at www.vt-2004.org/vt-net/vt-net-ireland.html

Thanks!

~Albert White
--
On behalf of the Irish Steering Committee, vt-2004 Project.

p.s. Let me know if I have missed out any clubs on this email!

Dear Colleagues,

No doubt you are aware that there are only 27 days left until the Transit of
Venus on Tuesday, 8 June. This is a spectacle no living person has seen and
it is a wonderful opportunity to promote a better understanding of
astronomy.

ESO has grasped this opportunity and it has an elaborate programme, funded
by the EU, to exploit the event for science education (see www.vt-2004.org).
The programme is being promoted on an all-Ireland basis by the Astronomical
Science Group of Ireland and Armagh Planetarium. A National Steering
Committee has been co-ordinating information and publicity and an Irish
website www.venustransit.ie is being developed.

Apart from making the general public aware of the event, we hope to interest
in particular teachers and pupils and to encourage them to make timings of
the transit. Unfortunately, state exams start on Wednesday, 9 June, so most
secondary pupils will not be in school; there is consequently an urgent need
to instruct them in advance on safe ways of observing the Sun. There is an
excellent Teachers' Guide on the vt-2004 website for second level schools.
Primary schools may find it easier to participate and there is an excellent
Kid's Area on the vt-2004 website. It is hoped that ASGI members and amateur
astronomers will contact teachers in local primary schools to inform them of
this opportunity and to draw their attention to the recommendations for safe
observing on the VT-2004 website.

On the day of the Transit, ESO is arranging for 200 mirror sites to be
available, so this may become the greatest Web event in history. As timing
measurements come into the vt-2004 website, the average value of the
Astronomical Unit will be estimated; it will be interesting to compare the
final result with the value from radar measurements. Also, individuals can
judge how good are their own estimates.

On behalf of the NSC I ask for your support and I will forward information
on a regular basis over the next few weeks. Please let me know if you do not
wish to be included in this mailing list. A5 flyers (see attachment) have
been distributed to ASGI members and to libraries; if you would like a few
hundred, please contact me.

As a start, ask your friends to try the quiz at
www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/quiz/quiz.asp

With sincere thanks for your anticipated support,

Ian Elliott
Hon. Sec. to the Irish NSC for VT-2004

ok folks, this thread is for the discussion of events relating to the Venus transit. There is a thread on the ashen lights already so please keep discussions in the appropriate places, or start new ones. I'm deleting the superflous posts from this thread.

~Al

Here is the latest information from the International Steering Committee for
VT-2004. Kindly let me know of special events happening in Ireland and I
will collate the information.

Ian Elliott


Dear National Nodes,

today the Central Display is on the web. So all corner stones of the vt-2004
project internet- presentation exist and are available. I think ISC has
created and published a colourful mosaic of information. The pictures from
Prague will be tomorrow on the web. For the next press release we need a
short report or overview from every National Node, which announce and
describes the special events, which are planned for the day of the transit,
like the great happening in the Frogner park in Norway. And lat last: We
have received a lot of fine and fascinating pictures and very interesting
e-mails during the last days and so it may be that it will take some time to
react. And finally: The t-shirts are on the way since yesterday.

Kind regards

Bernhard

Hi,
I'm not sure if this is the place for this but, is anyone outside the astro community excited about this ???
I tried explaining it to some of my non-astro friends and they were looking at me like I had 2 heads, "a black do crossing the sun taking 5 hours, and only visible with the propper gear", was one reply :cry:
Is anyone else having trouble trying to wipping up enthusiasm for this ??

Personally, I can't wait .. , but thats just me.

Is anyone else having trouble trying to wipping up enthusiasm for this ??

I'm still trying to get details of transit watches from the clubs, so yea it seems I'm having enthusiasm issues also! (email or pm me for flyers & posters!)

I think it will all come together on the day. The media, already taking note, will publicise it on the 7th. By which time the groundwork will be done, the vt-2004.org site will be serving webcast images around the world, venustransit.ie will have details of clubs and transit watches if people do want to drop along, and this site is here to discus the event.

Presentation has a lot to do with it also. Someone on TV saying this is a spectacular astronomical event is a little boring compared to someone saying that if it wasnt for the venus transit in 1769, Hawaii would not have been discovered until later, or raising more romantic notions evoked by Harkness in 1882

"We are now on the eve of the second transit of a pair, after which there will be no other till the Twenty-First century of our era has dawned upon the earth, and the June flowers are blooming in 2004.... What will be the state of science when the next transit season arrives God only knows." (American astronomer William Harkness in 1882).

Ok even so we still have a long way to catch up with the enthusiasm the Norweigans can muster for such things - www.astronomy.no/venus080604/frognerpark.html

Overall I'm optimistic that the events, coverage, and outreach in Ireland will be a success. There are things that could have been done better, but people (well me anyway!) have learnt a lot about organising such events, nationally and across europe. But it will take that media flurry on the night or that morning if its clear to focus the attention on it.

Cheers,
~Al

Indeed, when I went around Tullamore yesterday evening to hand out the Transit flyers and posters for shop windows, no one I handed them to knew what was going on! So, I spent about 3 minutes telling each of them!

{thanks for those too, Albert, I also stuck 1/2 A4 page on the bottom of each poster with details of TAS's meeting on June 7th}

I told them how it is not as rare as the Martian event last August, but no one has seen this type of event since 1882, therefore, it could be even more rare than Mars, as you can see Mars in a telescope or by naked eye, every year... A Venusian Transit takes 120 years!

Now, they're curious, and some even said that they will more than likely come to TAS's meeting on the evening of June 7th, despite being a bank holiday, to find out more, and if weather permits to see the sun projected prior to the meeting.

Its what I have always believed is the best way to promote things like this - grab their curiosity, tell them what they want to hear, and show them what they want to see. Dress it up a little!

Seanie.

Dear colleagues,

we have further updated the VT-2004 website and are getting closer to
completeness.

The Central Display is ready in lay-out and most of the links are active.
Some of the pages behind it will still be completed within the next few days
(Weather, etc.). We have placed a first video from the occultation at the
Video page and you will also find the latest map with the locations of the
observers that participate in the VT-2004 Observing Campaign. We have just
rounded 800 and the number continues to rise rapidly.

We have also inserted links to the VT-2004 Basic Image Processing facility
that is now available to everybody! Digital images frequently contain more
information than is obvious at first glance. We want to help observers in
getting the most out of their digital camera images, in particular those of
the Venus transit. The facility
(proxyon.asu.cas.cz/~venus/) has been set up at the Ondrejov
Observatory (The Czech Republic). Here all interested may submit their
images and have a variety of well documented operations performed on them.
The results are immediately displayed on the screen. We trust that this will
be of continued use to observers, also long after the Venus Transit is over.
The links were inserted on the top page, on the pages for Amateurs and
Education (Students and Teachers), as well as on two of the pages in the
"How to Observe" area.

We continue to receive many photos and, recently, more drawings for the
Gallery. We do our utmost to put the best ones on the web as soon as
possible, but due to other work, delays of 1 day (exceptionally 2 days) may
happen.

We expect to issue the next Press Communication (No. 5) on Friday 28. 5 or
Monday 31.5. I hope that we will have some new statistics on the web load
soon, but with the recent switch over from two to five servers here at ESO,
the system has to be correspondingly adjusted.

Kind regards,

Richard West

Richard West

That name may be familiar to many of you as the discoverer of Comet West (1975 v1). www.eso.org/~rwest/

cheers,
~Al

Someone on TV saying this is a spectacular astronomical event is a little boring compared to someone saying that if it wasnt for the venus transit in 1769, Hawaii would not have been discovered until later, or raising more romantic notions evoked by Harkness in 1882

"We are now on the eve of the second transit of a pair, after which there will be no other till the Twenty-First century of our era has dawned upon the earth, and the June flowers are blooming in 2004.... What will be the state of science when the next transit season arrives God only knows." (American astronomer William Harkness in 1882).

Cheers,
~Al

Al,
any idea onine where I can find more references like these in relation to previous transits? How was the AU determined and when?

Seanie.

any idea onine where I can find more references like these in relation to previous transits? How was the AU determined and when?

The extended infosheets on vt-2004.org should have all you need:
www.vt-2004.org/Background/Infol2/

There are some anmations at www.vt-2004.org/animations/ which may be of use for exaplaining the event and the parallax effect if you need it for a talk.

Cheers,
~Al

Got them, thanks Al.

any idea onine where I can find more references like these in relation to previous transits? How was the AU determined and when?

And closer to home www.irishastrosoc.org/transit.htm

Account of the Transit of Venus, observed from Dunsink Observatory, 1882 December 6
By Sir Robert S. Ball M.A., F.R.S.I.

Cheers,
~Albert

I'm sure a lot of people have been watching the skies these last few mornings and rating the mornings as to their usefulness on the morning of the transit; "This would be a great morning for the transit, hope we get weather like this" and so on. One thing I've noticed, particularly this morning, is that while I woke to clear blue skies, horizon to horizon, in Laois, a large bank of hazy cloud was resting over Dublin. Perfect skies for the transit in the midlands, frustrating skies on the coast.

What are the various groups going to do if this is the case on the morning of June 8th? Do groups have back-up plans? Will there be a dash for the hills?

What will interested members of the public do if they arrive at a location to find ... nothing? I'm speaking from experience here. I arrived in Bushy Park on the morning of the Mercury Transit in the hopes of finding fellow sky-watchers, who had said they'd be there on the yahoo group. After doing three laps of the park I had to give up and go to work.

One group is providing contact numbers for members of the public, below their request for donations - something which makes a mockery of their stated aims. Could we do the same (numbers, not begging)? Just in case.

I would be up for this Shane...

Though, I have to hang my head in shame as TAS itself has not planned (or seems to want to) anything for the Transit.

BUT, if people wanted to come down towards my end of the coutry (road) then they're more than welcome. I live in the countryside 12 miles from Tullamore (Dublin side), and if people are taking the day off work to view the Transit, I'd like to offer my location as an alternative. I'll provide food and drink, and whatever else you want, including an internet connection.

Maybe, some could go into Tullamore to the town square and offer a look through baader glasses or welders glass for a short while too.

Any thoughts?

Seanie.

This is part of the reason that I was asked to just get contact details for the clubs and not details of events - the venustransit.ie site doesnt want to be promoting events that may not take place. Though where clubs have said there will be events I have added a Venue line on the page (still waiting for them to update with the latest info).

If you are organising a public event then please stick with the venue you have planned for. Members of the public are unlikley to ring up for details, they will just turn up on the day.

If its just sea haze you are referring to then this will only affect the sandymount venue, and that will go ahead (RTE may be dropping down so there better be people there!).

I'll try and get up early enough one of these mornings (or stay up long enough!) and see what its like in sandymount. For the mercury transit cloud was the main problem.

Its diappointing when you expect people to turn up and they dont. For mercury the morning didnt look the best, and some people did go to bushy park, but then down to sandymount, where we had a fairly succesful observing day.

One final thing about Sandymount tower, it seems that this venue, which the IAS has been holding Dublin Sidewalk Astronomers gatherings at for some time, is starting to becom known as an astronomy area. I have had one query from someone specifically asking if there would be anyone with telescopes at sandymount tower, so the venue is gaining reputation. now if we could just get the co. co. to shut the lights off when we are there....

Cheers,
~Al

If its just sea haze you are referring to then this will only affect the sandymount venue, and that will go ahead (RTE may be dropping down so there better be people there!).

Cheers,
~Al

I intend being down at Sandymount with my LX90 and my brand-spanking-new white light filter from around 5.30. Even if it is hazy and cloudy I can't see myself dashing for the mountains; I'd prefer to take my chances and wait for breaks in the clouds. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Sky News Ireland may be down too, so wear your best anorak!

The media don't seem to be as fired up about this as they were about Mars. Part of the problem may be the pairs of transits. "It's really rare! No one alive has seen one! Last one was 122 years ago, next one is in eight years time!"

The media don't seem to be as fired up about this as they were about Mars. Part of the problem may be the pairs of transits. "It's really rare! No one alive has seen one! Last one was 122 years ago, next one is in eight years time!"

Well we did have NASA, the ESA, Colin Pillinger, and a lander with a cute name to do the PR for Mars

The media are starting to take interest in the transit now. And I expect that June 7th and 8th if the weather is clear they will take a lot more interest.

Dick Ahlstrom apparently has an atricle in todays Irish Times also.

Cheers,
~Al

* Science - A major goal of the observation side will be to determine the AU. Again this can be a simple or as complicated as you like. At the simplest level you can send your location and times of the major events to the ESO and they will do the calculations. For the applied maths students they can work out the calculus for themselves!

Just wondering how to go about calculating the AU. Is there any site on how to do it including the maths involved. It may be beyond me but no harm in asking