Date: 8 Jun 2004
Location: Penn High School, Mishawaka, IN, USA (41.68 Lat, -86.11 Lon)
Equipment: XT8 (8" dobsonian reflector), 25mm & 9mm plossl, ultrascopic 2x barlow, Thousand Oaks solar filter
Predicted sunrise: 5:10 AM local time (10:10 UTC), at 59° azimuthrea
Predicted 3rd contact: around 6:03 AM local time, 8° altitude
Predicted 4th contact: around 6:24 AM local time, 11° altitude

[See 2004 Celebration in Mishawaka, IN]

Wonderful event! I observed at a public event that a bunch of us with equipment were recruited for. While I showed the transit to 100+ folks (a lot of kids, nice to see), I had exclusive use for third & fourth contact to *try* to time them. Before that morning I had never used a solar filter - one was provided by the organizers of the event. The result was almost comic: perhaps a dozen 'scopes started franticly trying to locate the Sun as soon as it crested the trees near the horizon around 5:30, almost none with filter-equiped finders and with the Sun too dim (low & in clouds) too be seen in the eyepiece. Minimize the shadow cast by the OTA I hear you say? With the Sun so low & dim, there were no shadows, and we dared not look with the filters off. Eventually everybody located it, and the viewing began.

Venus was a wonderfully inky black perfect disk on the Sun, unmistakable. As others have noted, it seemed larger than I had expected, nice at 48x, with 3rd & 4th contact observed at 96x. The blackness was really noticeable compared to the two small sunspots centrally located. As 3rd contact approached, I started to see what looked like...
 ...a thin thread connected the black disk of Venus to the limb of the Sun. It was hair-fine, and slightly "wrinkly", not razor straight but slightly slack and wriggly. I saw it at least three times, when Venus was perhaps 1/5th of a Venusian diameter or less from the solar limb (did anyone else see this?). As the bridge thinned, it seemed to thin on both sides, as if being drawn apart like a piece of taffy. This was subtle, but it soon formed a wavery bridge of light, trembling to hold Venus within the glowing disk of the Sun. This very quickly gave way to the "black drop": instead of a razor-thin line of light, Venus merged with the edge in a non-uniform way, one instant still within the solar disk, the next breaking the limb of the Sun with a wider-than-it-should-be black gap. I was unprepared for how difficult this made timing the moment of contact (I got 11:05:02 UT - the guy next to me was something like 7 *seconds* earlier, clearly unacceptable... and I'm not sure either of us trusted our own observations on this). As it pushed through the limb, I thought I saw a partial ring of light around it when it was perhaps a quarter of the way out - the guy next to me clearly saw it (not sure what magnification he was using, but he was on a 4" apo), and was very excited. He described it as "horns" to a complete arc (it was never that distinct to me). I *did* notice that from a quarter of the way out to perhaps halfway or even more, the disk of Venus seemed very slightly darker than the sky behind it. I could picture the complete disk of Venus even with half of it off the face of the Sun (perhaps this was my imagination, but it was something I thought I observed... and after all, that's what this is, an observing report :-). 4th contact actually seemed easier to judge (note, this doesn't mean I was any more accurate, just more confident); as Venus departed from the Sun, it formed a rapidly-diminishing very shallow dimple, and I timed 4th contact as the moment when this dimple was lost in the seeing variations in the solar limb.

All in all, we had a fantastic time. Plenty of folks helped out, running 'scopes for the general public, while others MCed the event. The general public was wonderful, really enthusiastic... it was also nice, I must admit, getting to peek through others equipment: I had the XT8 and a TV85 plus a pair of tripod-mounted binoculars, and I suspect I was the bottom end of the equipment list. One guy had a 6" refractor, there were a couple of 10" reflectors, an LX200, several APOs (at least one other TV85), and two 'scopes with H-alpha filters (a coronado & something else). The night before we had a mini-starfest, tagging various (mostly bright) objects in the hazy, light-polluted (but steady!) skies until midnight, then gathering in a tent to watch a webcast of 1st & 2nd contact. Even on TV it was a spellbinding event, and picturing the true three-dimensional situation (the Sun being more than twice as far from Venus as Venus is from us at that moment) made it even more amazing. The dimmest object I managed to find that night was M82 (!!), but Jupiter was nice (well-defined features in the NEB), and M13 and colorful doubles were the public showpieces of the night.

Oh, and somewhere in there I did land 2 hours of sleep in a tent nearby. Didn't hit me at all until the next day, late, when I fell asleep waiting for the shower to warm up. Oops.

Afterthoughts (for the next transit): (1) I need to have some way to photograph through the eyepiece, as well as remembering to take a few "naked eye" (unmagnified) shots of the Sun (I didn't think of it - now *that's* dumb). (2) Observe on higher power (I really could have gone up from 96x, and seeing would have probably supported my next option at 133x with the 9mm). (3) Run a tape recorder to record verbal observations during the event. And maybe, not do the public thing - although it was FANTASTIC, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world, I really want to be isolationist for the critical moments of the next one.

OK, anybody else want to report? Please?
--
Brian Davis

The 2004 transit of Venus was witnessed and celebrated from Mishawaka, Indiana, USA, under very good conditions.  We had successful stargazing the night of June 7; webcasts beginning at midnight (EST); clear skies at sunrise; perhaps 20 quality telescopes and viewing devices; and a crowd of enthusiasts.  As third contact approached, so too did a large bank of low clouds.  However, the clouds cleared in time to capture that elusive moment.   See video. Brian Davis wrote a descriptive observing report about his experience. Visually, the transit of Venus at third contact was more rewarding than I had anticipated.  No appreciable black drop effect appeared, on which we could blame diverse timings.  I was taken aback by how difficult it was to discern the exact second of contact.  Only part of it can be attributed to the festival-like atmosphere we sought. More photos... Details about the celebration and our experience will be uploaded after we tend to some necessary business--sending many thank-you notes, paying bills, gathering images and stories, and getting some sleep.  In the meantime, we thank the many businesses and individuals who supported our efforts to bring this dynamic solar system experience to our community.   Media Coverage Continues 3092 3087 3084 dustin012 kaelin014 Preparing the Main Observing Site 3093 3095 3097 3099 3100 banner010 monitors011 3104 3098  tentframe3034 tent3036 phmsign3046 phmsign3047 Webcasts of 1st and 2nd Contacts 3113 June 8, 2004: Transit of Venus at Sunrise 006 025 031 002 017  003 008 010  Clouds Threaten Third Contact 016 Broadcast of WWV Time Signal, courtesy of  Radio Operator John Fleming (W3GQJ) 3106 3108 Clouds Clear 023 024 025 030 afterglow.jpg Image courtesy of Cathy McCormick. aligning.jpg Aligning with moon. darnell.jpg Observing the moon lapierre.jpg  Preparing scopes. images courtesy of Don Darnell. http://www.physics.nd.edu/venus%20at%20phm/index.htm University of Notre Dame physics students watch the transit of Venus from the PHM site in Mishawaka, IN. The following table of images are courtesy of Ralph Garhart: 3g001 3g005 3g003 3g010 3g011 3g012 3g014 3g015 3g021 3g025 3g027 3g030 3g035 3g036 3g039 3g041 3g042 3g043 3g044.jpg 3g047 3g054 2g002 2g003 2g005 2g008 2g014 2g025 2g027 2g029 2g034 2g036 2g038 2g045 1g020 1g023 1g029 1g035 1g036 1g037 1g038   http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/images/stories/2004/06/09/local.images/stories/20040609-sbt-MARS-A1-Out.sto   A story and images in the South Bend Tribune; online for a limited time. The June 4th Artist's Reception for the Transit of Venus Art Exhibit opened the community celebrations and continues through June 30, images/stories/2004. crowd009 lenore005 poster005 wali007 crowd008 On June 5, 2004, The Pub promoted the transit of Venus and hosted Matt Rumley for an outstanding performance. images/stories/congrats.jpg U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige congratulates the Penn-Harris-Madison Corporation and its families for global outreach related to the 2004 Transit of Venus.

The poster below is a 6-year old's explanation of the transit of Venus.  Though it was created for the 2004 event, it remains relevant for the 2012 transit of Venus.

Transit of Venus   June 8, 2004 (This page by Sarah, age 6)   A transit of Venus is when Venus crosses in front of the sun.  You also can write down the exact time when it starts and ends.  It’s important because you can figure out the distance from Earth to the sun. This is a picture of the sun rising on June 8, 2004.  You can see Venus crossing in front of the sun.  Where it says Black Drop Effect is when Venus looks like it is smudged.  The Black Drop Effect happens when Venus is almost touching the inside edge of the sun. A long time ago people thought that the sun was nearby like a neighbor.  Icarus flew too high and his wings were made of wax and feathers .  The sun melted his wings of wax and feathers so down he fell. Never wear just sunglasses when you look at the transit of  Venus.  Why you may ask?  Sunglasses let too much light in your eyes and they could hurt a little or a lot.   So use a solar filter or special glass (like #14 welding glass or eclipse shades) .   Sarah, age 6.