It's very interesting to note the difference made by a few tens of miles. And by the time the "shadow" reaches my sisters in Wisconsin, it's 67 minutes later.
| Venus occulted (2nd contact) | 17:09:14 |
|---|---|
| First light R | 18:43:35 |
| Completely visible | roughly 18:43:50? |
I lost the time of first (lighted) contact by mis-handling my stopwatch. BOO!
Seeing was too rough to have confidence in the final time; could be 10 sec earlier. I was looking at the right place for the first light reappearance. This could be termed 3rd contact, but that term more correctly refers to the invisible dark limb of Venus.
Likewise, the first contact with the lighted portion is about 15 seconds after the true first contact.
Sandra wrote:
I haven't seen anything on big dog in a while. I was surprised not to see posts about the incredible occultation yesterday morning.
Hi, Sandra, glad you were able to see it. I'd posted a short summary to TAC on Tuesday, and a longer one to my sisters and nieces in Wisconsin. Here's my report to them:
Hi, All,
I see by the weather reports that Wisconsin and Upper Michigan are wet, probably clouds everywhere. Sorry you weren't able to see today's celestial special event.
Here on the left coast, the sky was clear, air cool enough to tolerate standing around under the Sun. I was able to observe the occultation of Venus by the Moon, and timed the beginning and end. The predicted times were off only slightly, nearly 2 minutes early going in, 1 minute coming out. These timings are no longer of scientific use, but they served as a test for the program that I used to compute times for the various locations.
Without optical aid, I was able to see Venus very near the Moon as a tiny but brilliant point of light. In the scope at 122 power, Venus showed a lopsided circle of light -- we are looking at part of the night side, so it's not perfectly round. The moon rapidly closed in on it, and took about 15 seconds to cover it completely.
Ninety minutes later, with the scope at 61 power, I could see the Moon and could readily imagine where the unlighted part would be. I guided the scope to center that unlighted side, and watched continuously from about 4 minutes before the predicted time. !!! Suddenly there was a bright point of light, rapidly growing until Venus was once again fully visible.
By now the day had gotten rather warm, so I broke down the scope and went inside. But not before again looking without the scope, and yes, there was Venus, now on the other side of the Moon!
Great fun, watching the dance of the planets! How unfortunate that such events are so rare.
Clear Skies! unc/bro Jim.