Shocking Blue Goddess on the mountain top Burning like a silver flame The summit of beauty and love And Venus was her name She's got it Yeah, baby, she's got it I'm your Venus, I'm your fire At your desire Well, I'm your Venus, I'm your fire At your desire Her weapons were her crystal eyes Making every man a man Black as the dark night she was Got what no-one else had Wa! [repeat chorus, first phrase, chorus]
Luckily the song didn't get stuck into my brain until just a few minutes ago. I have no idea what they are trying to say but it seemed like a cool song when I was a kid.
The Venus transit though, well that was pretty straightforward. Get up at 4am, haul telescope to a spot with a clear view, and drink lots of coffee while waiting for the Sun to arrive.
This is the telescope's view while waiting for the Sun to stop being so coy. Ha! And I bet ya'll thought shoes hanging from powerlines was only a big city thing. We got it all out here in the sticks.
Meanwhile the no-see-ums and mosquitos seemed to be enjoying their Jer snack.
Ah, at last! The stripes are thin bands of clouds or fog that kept zipping by. Looks pretty cool although there's some distortion, either from the angle of the board or the camera. The final shot is without clouds and about ten minutes later.
5 comments
permanent link
email this
Nasa is of course posting lots of educational materials on this event. They are also talking about the scientific community of 1882 and how the last even affected them at the time.
'One of the loveliest comments made by a scientist during this time was when Harkness noted in 1882 that the next transit of Venus will occur, "when the June flowers are blooming in 2004,". The longer version of this quote reads:
"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. When the last transit season occurred the intellectual world was awakening from the slumber of ages, and that wondrous scientific activity which has led to our present advanced knowledge was just beginning. What will be the state of science when the next transit season arrives God only knows. Not even our children's children will live to take part in the astronomy of that day. As for ourselves, we have to do with the present ..." '
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/vt_edu2004_venus_back_his.htm
I finally got my photos processed:
http://www.tjimaging.com/ted/venustransit.htm
hah! that dot looked a little well defined in the middle photo
Very nice Jerry. The second photo almost looks like an airbrush piece, which is cool.
Very nice pics.
Until I was in college I thought the words to the song were "I'm your [insert scientific word for male phallus]".
"That's pretty innapropriate for radio" I thought. But then again, I'm dumb.