Once in a lifetime

Did you see it?

I certainly wouldn’t call myself an astronomy buff, but when I heard about the transit of Venus, and when I found out that it would be visible this evening but never again in the lifetime of anyone in existence today, you can bet I loaded the kids in the car and took off for the closest viewing area I could find.

A local museum had several powerful telescopes set up with special filters (thus all the duct tape) where we’d be able to see Venus passing between us and the sun.  Very, very cool…

Scientists say that this phenomenon won’t be seen again until the year 2117, so I’m thrilled we were able to get in on this once-in-a-lifetime experience today.

Thankfully, it was a beautiful, clear evening, which made for great viewing. But although I could see it with my own eyes, I just couldn’t manage to capture the amazing sight with my camera. Then we found this guy…

…who’d brought his giant, self-built telescope…

…and had the brilliant idea of projecting the image onto a white surface, which allowed me to finally get the picture I’d been hoping for:

As expected, the reflection photo doesn’t do justice to what we really saw. (To our eyes, the sun was a brilliant red.) But at least you can see how clear the view of the transit was. The darkest spot is, of course, Venus, and the others are sun spots (places where the temperature is cooler).

My favorite photo of the evening was taken as Chandler put on some disposable viewing lenses. I happened to catch him just as he looked through them for the first time, caught a glimpse of the rare occurrence, and  said…..you guessed it…..WOW!

Because really, what else can you say?

The heavens are telling of the glory of God;

And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

There is no speech, nor are there words…

(Psalm 19: 1, 3)

Did any of you get to experience this, too? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks for stopping by!