The Venus Transit, 8th June 2004, 6:20/12:25 LCT

I don't recall being thrilled by the awakening tone of my mobile many times... Specially at 4 am. The transit was scheduled to occur some minutes after 6 am (Local Civil Time), but I wanted to have some margin for two reasons. First to drive away from town, away from tall buildings, close to an horizon were I could see the Sun peaking early, and to a place as quiet as possible... Secondly to be able to chase good skies in case of getting bad weather...

Fortunately the sky was clear and the moon was the host. By this time of its cycle comes out really late. The fact that we don't see each other that often at this hour and the invitable surrounding made me take the first picture of the day. There were almost 6 am and I had just arrived to the service station where I've ended up making the full session.

It was also the first time that I went to a place far from home with the intention of making an observation. The quantity of bags needed is truly amazing! The scope mount, camera tripod, bag with eyepieces, bag with lenses, laptop, bag with the OTA, and all the small gear!... Not to mention the seat, water and food for 6 lasting hours of transit! The sun shelter was of extreme importance! Luckily it was already on the car's trunk, without it I would have fried up!

It took almost 20 minutes to set everything up. By that time the transit was just beginning. Anyway I've soon realized that I was going to miss the first minutes due to some tall trees that though far away would surely prevent me from seeing from the first minute.

I was looking ahead to some handicaps in my equipment that would force me to make some choices of what would be most important. The laptop battery doesn't last forever... In the best case scenario lasts for 2 hours. Considering the transit's duration I had to order my priorities. As the contacts I and II were practically out of range, my main goal with the webcam was contacts III and IV.

I've made some recordings in the meantime anyway just to test and find the best image setup in the software. The remaining shots were made with my digital camera in afocal mode. Among all these different ways to capture venus, the most delighting view was definitely the one seen through the eyepiece.

There may be many photos and videos about this event, but nothing compares to the real images. The black disk was perfect, the high contrast, the extraordinary definition, absolutely breath cutting! Being aware that that image was more than a black spot, it was a planet! And then, that feeling of witnessing something that no one alive has ever seen, knowing there will be no other chance, made that show without any doubt even more meaningful.

But this meaning isn't shared by everyone. For many people the Venus transit is just as important as knowing that there's an exhibition of this new japanese artist, who was the winner of the elections in some remote country in south-america, or how much will the government spend supporting film festivals next year. The interest people have on things is relative and that's the way it's got to be. Still, I can't stop feeling there's a lack of cosmic awareness in our society.

Maybe I wasn't enough prepared, maybe I still haven't the required experience to preview problems and master some technics. Maybe, or surely, even giving its maximum the equipment didn't gave enough. That EQ-1 mount... It's not even worth to tell about the headaches it gives me...

What surprised me most (besides Venus, unbeatable) was the easiness of how the 6 hours of transit were spent. No sleep, hungry or tiredness. The ritual of changing eyepieces, taking pictures, making videos and operating all that equipment, was an unique experience, in the purest sense this word can have.

All the images and photos I've made until now made me gain experience. I've always learned something new and thought that the next time there's room to improve changing this or changing that. But with this event this was not valid. If things didn't come out well at first attempt then nothing could be done. Thinking in these terms is terrible but it's the truth.

In global terms the results turned out in about 80% of what were my expectations. The high moments ahead, the contacts III and IV didn't quit turned out as desired. The famous Murphy applies.. When nothing at all can fail, it does fail! The battery shortage of the laptop kept it turned off most of the time. I've turned it on close to the end to make a full record of the egress...

Right now, I'm 100% sure that it was a great experience and a fantastic day. The next transit of Venus takes place in 6th June 2012 but cannot be seen here in Portugal. It looks dramatic but it's not... In the east cost of Spain can be partially seen. And it's not that far... ;)

Technical data and equipment:

Venus Close-ups: SW 90mm + Philips Toucam Pro + Registax + Photoshop
Sun Disk: SW 90mm + Plossl 25mm + Sony DSC-S30 + Photoshop
Venus animation: Fireworks + Animation Shop 3
Moon pic: Olympus OM-2n 114mm + Photoshop
Venus video: Windows movie maker
Remaining pics: Olympus OM-2n