Alex, I am proud of you and Bob for doing this citizen science project. The
graphics and mathematical formulas are great. The Pizza, however was the best.
Are you going to do your
calculations at home or at one of the 2 campuses? Take care, Sam
-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Vrenios <axv@xxxxxxx>
To: pasmembers <pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, May 2, 2016 11:14 am
Subject: [pasmembers] Re: Mercury Transit
Hi Leah,
Wow - that certainly qualifies for the “distant partner” in the AL’s program
requirements!
They would have to be a member of the Astronomical League, however, and I’ll
bet you won’t find anyone (other than yourself that is) in that capacity. I’m
attaching a copy of the presentation slides. I assume you won’t be flying half
way around the world to see my talk :)
I’m partnering with Bob Ewing. We will be taking three images, one at 1600,
1700 and 1800 UTC. He is still officially a member of the AL as well as PAS,
but he got a teaching job back in Portland Oregon, where he’s from originally.
So I’m covered, but thanks for the offer.
Hope you’re doing well,
Alex
Of course, this doesn’t have the actual images yet. I’ll plug them in where it
says “actual photos follow.”
On May 2, 2016, at 10:18 AM, Leah S <lphxaz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I don't know what is the big deal. it is easy to find out the distance
to the sun! just look it up on wikipedia! :)
of course if you want to measure it yourself, just point a laser at the
sun and time how long it takes for the light to come back. probably you
would want to do this at night when it's dark... :D
ok, all kidding aside... I have spoken with some people in Israel and I
might be able to find you a partner here on the other side of the globe.
the transit will be visible here from the beginning of the transit till
sunset, which is around 7 pm local time, i.e. 9 am in Phoenix.
I'll let you know if I find someone to participate, if you are
interested.
On 4/12/2016 5:11 PM, Alex Vrenios wrote:
You don’t need to see Mercury at any of the four contact points.
You need to have someone at a distant location take a photo of Mercury
at the exact same time that you do. Both photos must contain the full Sun
for alignment. If you have more than one simultaneous photo, so much the
better, but one is all you need for our level of accuracy.
Make two prints and superimpose them. Measure the diameter of the
printed solar disc, then measure the distance between the two
Mercury-image dots. Finally, you need the distance between you and your
cohort. Plug in these values and calculate the value of 1 AU.
I’ll be presenting all this in detail at the May 5th meeting.
Alex
On Apr 12, 2016, at 3:26 PM, Peter Turner <peteturner@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
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, 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 (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. ;
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
--
Good friends are
like stars.
You don't
always
see them, but
you always
know they are
there.
Terri Phoenix
Astronomical
Society Event
Manager
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