I guess I’m confused about how we can do the measurement. It’s my
understanding that we need to be able to see Mercury as it touches the eastern
limb of the sun and as it touches the western limb. Since the transit starts
prior to the sun rising for viewers in the west, how do we do this?
Pete Turner
From: pasmembers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pasmembers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
On Behalf Of Alex Vrenios
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2016 9:29 PM
To: pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pasmembers] Re: Mercury Transit
Here’s my thinking on the matter. If we are both watching the Sun rise, I
imagine us both standing on the “side” of a sphere, looking east, toward the
Sun above our horizon.
With that image in mind, our difference in latitude is what would influence the
offset between our two projections of Mercury’s disc onto that of the Sun. Our
difference in longitude is trivial when compared to the distance between us and
the Sun.
Alex
On Apr 11, 2016, at 9:12 PM, Robert Ewing <rrewing9@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Alex...and Ted and all.....nicely done....
I was wondering about the difference in longitude between us being a factor.
But if we both (and others too) use horizontal lines across the solar disc and
measure parallax angle from those lines (across opposed to using specific
points) we should be ok. Boy, do we have to be precise!! The parallax will
be 1/3 the diameter of Mercury's disc!! Ha!
I will see if I can get someone in Bend, Oregon to join us because it will
almost certainly be clear there. Very dry. Central Oregon Community College is
there. Also Pine Mt. Observatory (where I used to do education/public
outreach).
Cheers everyone!
Bob E
On Apr 11, 2016 5:06 PM, "Alex Vrenios" <axv@xxxxxxx> wrote:
One thing, if I’m reading the requirements correctly, is that anyone can pair
up with anyone else. That is, if Ted and Bob get images at exactly 9am, 10am
and 11am Phoenix time (1800, 1700 and 1600Z), anyone else in the club can use
their images same-time to perform the measurements and calculations. Bob and
Ted can only pair up with one of us, but I see no prohibition against anyone or
everyone using these images to compare with their own.
Bob and I have a PowerPoint slide set that describes the details. I plan to use
them at the May 5th meeting to show what this is all about. I will be happy to
send a PDF to anyone who may not be able to attend the May meeting.
Alex
P.S. There are options in case the sky is cloudy at one or both locations,
allowing an AL member to use imaging over the Internet at one or even two web
locations to gather the data. I asked if a screen shot of a live stream was
okay. I also pointed out that the only “remote imaging” site I could find, at
iTelescope.net <http://itelescope.net/> , told me they do not offer a solar
imaging service at this time. The AL coordinator said he would contact some
others and let me know how they plan to change these options.
P.P.S. The AL’s Transit of Venus (in 2012) did NOT require two sets of images.
You only had to make a sketch and then go to a NASA site to do three
“activities,” one of which was to download their images and plug in your
measurements to get the calculated value of 1 AU.
On Apr 11, 2016, at 4:01 PM, Ted Blank <tedblank@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I will be on the East coast for the Mercury transit and would love to try this
with club members back here in Phoenix. It's about time we knew how far away
the sun was! 🌝
Best regards,
Ted Blank
(603) 817 9814 <tel:%28603%29%20817%209814> (cell)
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 11, 2016, at 2:43 PM, Terri <starstuff@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Alex,
the May 5 meeting would work good for a discussion about this project, if you
want to prep something about it. Dan doesn't usually do too long of a
presenation, so we should have time after his talk to discuss the Mercury
transit
Sam, is this ok with you and should we put it on the agenda?
I want to hear about it, even if I'm not planning to do it. Sounds intriguing.
Terri
On Sun, Apr 3, 2016 at 12:53 PM, Alex Vrenios <axv@xxxxxxx> wrote:
The Astronomical League is offering an award (pin and certificate) for meeting
the requirements as stated on their website http://astroleague.org ;
<http://astroleague.org/> . Scroll down to “Mercury Transit Special Award is
now here” and click on the word “here” at the end of that paragraph. This page
has all the requirements you must meet in order to receive the award. All
members of PAS are automatically PAS club affiliates of the AL so your first
requirement is already met.
The next set of requirements are not for the faint at heart. They involve the
cooperation of two observers at some distance apart (PVCC to BMC should be
enough) and a lot of trigonometry. You and your partner will be using the
separate observations to calculate “1 AU” the distance from the Earth to the
Sun.
I need to look at the details more carefully first, but I’d like to propose a
short talk about this at an upcoming meeting if there is any interest.
Alex
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