Transit of Venus

It's been a little bit of an exciting spring for those of us who like to think about outer space and the stars.  We were able to see part of the solar eclipse a few weeks ago - the kids thought that was kind of cool.  And just last week we went to the Eisenhower Observatory to see Venus travel in front of the sun.  They had a bunch of different telescopes set up with solar filters so that they were safe to view the sun.  Basically they all showed the same thing, but we could also see sun spots as well, which was neat.  They also had viewing glasses for sale for a $1 donation.  I think they could have charged more because they sold out of those within the first 2 hours.  (We were able to get 2 pairs.)  A volunteer mentioned that during the last transit of Venus in 2004, only 40 people showed up for their viewing party.  This one....was a little different.  There were a few hundred easily and that was only while we were there....it went until 10. 

They also had a planetarium set up where you could go inside and see a very realistic projection of the night sky, but it was VERY warm in there and jam packed with people.  We never made it up to the BIG telescope on the roof - there was quite a line and about a 30 minute wait.  So we'll go back in the fall when we can make reservations to be able to look through it at night.