I Saw Venus!

This morning I woke up at 4 AM.  It was dreadfully early.  I wanted to make sure John was awake to meet with his astronomy buddies to see Venus in front of the sun, so I made the sacrifice.  I called him up so he could come over and have coffee with me.  The only kind of coffee that could keep us awake that early in the morning was Chocolate Raspberry Truffle.  So he made a pot.  We didn't feel much like eating so we had three slices of cheese each.  Then I thought about it.  I was up anyway.  Why not go see it myself?  "Do you think your astronomy club would mind if I came along?" I asked John.  "I don't see why they would," he answered.  "Why don't you come."  So I fixed my hair, put on my shoes, and we were out the door.

We left for the park about 5:15.  I hadn't realized it was so light that early.  When we got there people were setting up their telescopes.  There were ten scopes in all.  John didn't bring his because you have to have a sun filter over your scope to view this event or you can go blind. 

The sun was completely up around 5:45.  It was a bright orange and pink ball.  Once again I didn't realize how magnificent it looked so early in the morning.  Sunrises are absolutely gorgeous, with the color of the sun being so beautiful, and the surrounding pinks and oranges being so beautiful.  I should get up early more often. 

Right when the sun came up and wasn't so bright yet, I took a look at the sun.  I did something they tell you absolutely not to do.  I looked directly at it.  And I saw Venus!  Yes, my Father is going to read this and I am going to be getting killed.  But I saw Venus!  After about ten more minutes somebody in the astronomy group said that the sun was too bright and told everybody not to look at the sun from that point on with the naked eye no matter what.  Then somebody in the group passed around filter glasses.  They looked like 3D glasses you see in the movie theatre.  They worked a little but not very well.

Then it became time to look through the telescopes.  That was the totally awesome part.  I feel privileged to experience such an awesome event.  It is strange but I used to not care about these astronomy events, but my boyfriend is getting me more interested in them, especially ones that happen rarely.  

The sun was bright pink/orange and near the bottom was a black round circle (Venus).  It was cool!  Nobody there had ever been alive to see it before.  

And there were lots of people there.  About 60.  Not just those from the astronomy club.  I don't know where the people heard about meeting in the park.  There were a lot of people from different cultures too who spoke different languages which I thought was cool.  

I asked John his impression of the transit.  "The one guy from the club warned us it would be as interesting as watching paint dry, but I thought it was exciting."  He also said he is hoping by the year 2012 that he will have his own sun filter so that he can watch the whole thing himself.