Tuesday June 08, 2004

Living in Boston, I had a chance to view the Transit of Venus this morning. It was well worth getting up at 3am to drive into Cambridge to attend Harvard's Festival of the Transit of Venus.

As the Sun came over the horizon from our vantage point on the 8th floor terrace of the Harvard Science Center, I was amazed that I could actually see Venus on the face of the Sun with the naked eye. It quickly became necessary to use the supplied solar viewing glasses, but I could still clearly see Venus without magnification for the next hour or more.

Several devices were available for magnified viewing -- binoculars, telescopes of various sizes and design. One special telescope was available -- that used by Harvard's John Winthrop in 1761 to view the transit from Newfoundland, a trip that required travelling behind enemy lines since the French & Indian War was in progress at the time.

In addition to live viewing, the Sun's image was bounced off of several mirrors onto a projection screen and then transmitted to Lecture Hall B and projected on one of the lecture hall's large screens. Several short lectures on topics associated with the transit were delivered by various faculty members and webcasts of transit viewing from around the world were displayed as well.

As a final touch, the Harvard Band performed John Philip Sousa's "Transit of Venus March."

I estimate that several hundred people participated in this wonderful event. Hats off to the CHSI staff and to all of the volunteers who made the event possible. (2004-06-08 06:29:27.0) Permalink Comments [0]