Now that I have this site fixed and can post pictures again, I can finally blog about the transit of Venus.

First, the facts.  On June 5, 2012, the planet Venus passed across the Sun during daylight hours.  The last time this happened was in 2004 but unfortunately,  It won’t occur again for 105 years.  So, if you missed it, invest in cryogenics now and hope that it’s perfected soon!  Believe or not, this was only the 7th transit of Venus observed due to the rarity of this event.  (I’d love to explain why but it’s tough to put into words the craziness of the cycle.  Just Google it and you’ll understand why!)  Even though Venus is just a tad smaller than Earth, due to its distance from us, it appears to us as a bright star at night.  In fact, it’s often referred to as either the ‘Evening Star’ or ‘Morning Star’ depending the season.

The transit began at 4:12pm Saskatoon time.  Unfortunately for us, Mother Nature really didn’t want to cooperate!  It was a warm day but also a very windy and cloudy day.  Joined by a few others, we took our telescopes to Grasswoods in hopes of getting a peak.  Luckily, we were rewarded with a few moments of clarity!

Maybe one day, I’ll finally have my adapters but for now, I’m just taking pictures through my Celestron Powerseeker 127 with my cell phone.  Every time the clouds moved though, we all jumped up and looked through our telescopes; snapping pictures feverishly.

But alas, the wind eventually got the better of us.  Let’s face it, there’s only so long that a person can stand having her legs sandblasted!  The clouds also kept rolling in.

So, we all packed it in and went home.  I tried setting up on my front lawn, hoping that the wind wouldn’t be so bad but alas, the cloud cover was too thick.  We saw a very quick peak where Venus was still only a quarter way through its journey but that was it.  No, once again, we weren’t going to be able to watch the whole show from here but I’m thrilled that I was able to experience even a small piece of this amazing astronomical event!