Saw the Transit from Western Mass, not Rome Italy as I had hoped--my wife put her foot down on the cost of the trip. Ready to roll and listening to Beethoven at 0450, using the moon to focus my 'scopes. Cloudy at sunrise, first views at 0536, no views at all 0545-0600, clouds disappearing 0600-0615, clear skies 0616 to final contact 0726. Had three 'scopes, an AP 130 with a white light filter and a Tak binoviewer & 19 mm Panoptics; a TV85 with a white light filter, 9 or 13 mm Nagler 6; and piggybacked to the TV, my double loaded Solar Max 40 with a Cemax 18mm on the 2x Cemax Barlow or plain 12 mm. I have for your discussion what I hope are several interesting observations.
First, on the trio of 'scopes, when the sun was red, between clouds but still very low (0536-0545) I could hardly find ol' Sol, atmospheric haze etc blocking so much of the sun light that the Orion white light filters filtered away everything.
Second, in clear skies on the white light filters there was a pronounced refraction ring around the Venusian image: with my diagonal so placed that Venus was moving towards the upper right, it had a distinct green band around from 8 to 1 o'clock and a red band from 1 to 6. 6 to 8 was clear. This increased as the planet approached the Solar limb. I presume this to be Venusian atmospheric diffraction but do not recall reading about this.
Third, the double mounted Max was not such a good idea (although I only figured this out driving home) as it of course reduced my visibility of the sun in HA early on. I should have started single loaded then added the second one after 0616.
Fourth, the binoviewer added little to my pleasure, my Universal Astronomics mount was inadequate to give me a perfectly still view (as my Gibraltar did for the tiny 'scopes) so I ended up almost bagging the AP and spent 90% of my viewing swapping between the TV and Max40.
Finally, the contacts were very different in the two scopes. In the TV, the upper edge of the planet developed a pronounced dewdrop effect, as I had expected; the lower edge of the contact remained crisp and sharply angled, just like that fabulous shot from New Jersey. On the Solar Max this did not occur, there was no smearing whatsoever. Contact 3 occurred about 40 seconds earlier in the TV than in the SMax, and contact 4, about a minute earlier in the TV (I could anticipate this by having the images at similar magnifications and seeing which was "closest" to the solar limb).
Presumably the dewdrop effect is an optical illusion...?!...and the SolarMax sees farther out into the gassiness of the Sun...
Who has comments/ proofs/ refutations of these observations?
Ciao
Robert Howe
First, on the trio of 'scopes, when the sun was red, between clouds but still very low (0536-0545) I could hardly find ol' Sol, atmospheric haze etc blocking so much of the sun light that the Orion white light filters filtered away everything.
Second, in clear skies on the white light filters there was a pronounced refraction ring around the Venusian image: with my diagonal so placed that Venus was moving towards the upper right, it had a distinct green band around from 8 to 1 o'clock and a red band from 1 to 6. 6 to 8 was clear. This increased as the planet approached the Solar limb. I presume this to be Venusian atmospheric diffraction but do not recall reading about this.
Third, the double mounted Max was not such a good idea (although I only figured this out driving home) as it of course reduced my visibility of the sun in HA early on. I should have started single loaded then added the second one after 0616.
Fourth, the binoviewer added little to my pleasure, my Universal Astronomics mount was inadequate to give me a perfectly still view (as my Gibraltar did for the tiny 'scopes) so I ended up almost bagging the AP and spent 90% of my viewing swapping between the TV and Max40.
Finally, the contacts were very different in the two scopes. In the TV, the upper edge of the planet developed a pronounced dewdrop effect, as I had expected; the lower edge of the contact remained crisp and sharply angled, just like that fabulous shot from New Jersey. On the Solar Max this did not occur, there was no smearing whatsoever. Contact 3 occurred about 40 seconds earlier in the TV than in the SMax, and contact 4, about a minute earlier in the TV (I could anticipate this by having the images at similar magnifications and seeing which was "closest" to the solar limb).
Presumably the dewdrop effect is an optical illusion...?!...and the SolarMax sees farther out into the gassiness of the Sun...
Who has comments/ proofs/ refutations of these observations?
Ciao
Robert Howe
Robert Howe
Wilbraham MA
TeleVue 85 f/7 // Astro-Physics Traveler 105 f/6 // Astro-Physics 130 f/8.35
Coronado 60 DS
"Scopes, Brains and Wisdom--but no Beauty"
