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Eppur si muove
Jun. 8th, 2004 07:21 amGot up at 5:30 this morning, set up my telescope, lashed a pair of binoculars to the back with electrician's tape, and projected the transit of Venus onto bits of white paper.
At least, the first hour of it, from a tiny indent in the side of the sun at about 0620 until Venus was 1.5 Venus diameters in. It was maybe a little early for people to be around -- one child came out to buy a paper, had a look and was impressed; a couple of adults saw me and the telescope but didn't come over, and I'm too shy to call out to people at 7am.
I'd have left it out longer, but, taking off the aperture mask in the hope of increasing contrast as well as brightness, I was quickly disturbed by a certain fuzziness and instability in the image, and noticed a smell indicating that the plastic lens-holder inside the eyepiece had caught fire and the tube was gently filling with smoke. Fortunately it went out quickly and without other than cosmetic damage.
At least, the first hour of it, from a tiny indent in the side of the sun at about 0620 until Venus was 1.5 Venus diameters in. It was maybe a little early for people to be around -- one child came out to buy a paper, had a look and was impressed; a couple of adults saw me and the telescope but didn't come over, and I'm too shy to call out to people at 7am.
I'd have left it out longer, but, taking off the aperture mask in the hope of increasing contrast as well as brightness, I was quickly disturbed by a certain fuzziness and instability in the image, and noticed a smell indicating that the plastic lens-holder inside the eyepiece had caught fire and the tube was gently filling with smoke. Fortunately it went out quickly and without other than cosmetic damage.
