Tue, Jun 5 2012 - Stone Mountain Sunset with rare Transit of Venus across Sun’s Disc (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Charlie Cottingham, Harry F Participants: Sheila C, Wendy M, Tracey L, Aaron, Mary Beth, Thomas W., Lorri, CB Genrich, Robin, Irina P, Colleen, Lisa, Andy M., David DeLorme, Lucy, Libby G, Clément Desaulniers, Laura V, Charlie Cottingham, Harry F, Mark, Natalie H., Dave R, Richard K, Joanna, Lisa Maldonado, Jaime, Dennis

Click for Album

  After much cloudiness all day a fabulous blue sky window opened up for us atop Stone Mountain for witnessing the amazing and rare transit of our beautiful sister planet. Luckily we won't have to wait around another 105 years to see one!
  Thanks to the ~80 friendly AOCers who joined me and my capable "partners in crime" Harry, Tony C, Joyce, Lauren and Mark to hike up the Walkup Trail and join our Atlanta Astronomy Club hosts and about 200 other men, women and children for this "last in this lifetime" unique experience.
   From "first contact" at 6:04 PM until the lovely sunset at 8:46, we had almost continuous views of Venus's black disc making its way across the top quadrant of the sun through our various solar scopes, solarized binoculars and "eclipse glasses."  Our AOC members shot hundreds of nice photos and video clips, and I look forward adding those online album links to this archive as they're received so we can share them here with everyone.  Please keep those links coming in - to Cott4Treks@aol.com.
  Special thanks to my friends Marie and Tim Lott of the AAC who gave us crisp "group views" of their projected telescopic image of the "Venus-dotted and Sun-spotted" sun. We're also indebted to them for the dozens of pairs of free solar-safe eyeglasses that they gave out to us and the big transit viewing crowd.  Some of us got incredible closeup shots of the transit simply by taping or holding the glasses to the front of a point & shoot camera and zooming in on the sun!

Thanks to Tony C!  His album (added June 6th):
https://picasaweb.google.com/117574944045321577606/20120605AOCStoneMountainVenusTransitAndSunset?authkey=Gv1sRgCOvXrO_Jwdz7Mw

Thanks to Joyce Taaffe!  Her Facebook album (added June 7th):
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151713343320260.476948.540275259&type=3&l=0e4bad6fc

Thanks to Harry Falise for these two of photos on Flickr - one of the projected "scope funnel" image of Venus transiting the sun; the other Mark Reffett observing through Harry's solar-safe scope (added June 7th):