Venus Solar Transit -
June 8, 2004
This photo says
it all!
Well, we gave it our best shot, but
in the end our efforts to witness the transit of Venus across the face
of the sun were thwarted! The moon and somewhat starry sky of
4:30am quickly gave way to a pervading fog bank, and soon the transit
time came and went without showing us even a hint of the solar
disk. Of course, just 5 minutes later the sun finally broke
through; it was as if the weather gods were laughing at us.
Nevertheless, we had a good time. Shortly
after I arrived at 4:30, Matt Broscious joined me. And soon
thereafter came Sandy Milliken and George Varros. Then, shortly
before sunrise, we were also joined by local amateur Mike Pine, who
independently had the same idea about where to view the transit
from. George's friend Bill also visited us a bit, along with his
yellow lab, Leo.
Well, the company was great and weather was
pleasant, if not clear. We missed out on this astronomical event,
but we'll be ready for the next one!!!
Here's a few more photos (click to enlarge):
My brother, Gary, in Chicago
fared much better than we did, however! Even though the transit
was only visible for about 20 minutes out there, he saw it from his
driveway and got a couple of pictures:
