Touring the Skies By: Jim Bonser (jbonser@usa.net)

Ps. 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. In May and then in June we were treated to some pretty spectacular astronomical events: a beautiful partial sunset eclipse on May 20th and the last transit of Venus of our lifetimes (unless you are still alive in December, 2117) on June 5th.  I know that for some, looking at the sun (with a proper filter of course) or at galaxies and star cluster – affectionately known by amateur astronomers as ‘faint fuzzies’ and even at some of the other planets in our solar system like Mars or Jupiter may seem boring.  After all, M13 looks the same this year as it did last year, or ten years ago, or even in 1714 when it was discovered by Sir Edmond Halley.  For me though, there is something special about tracking down and seeing these wonders in person.  I have probably looked at M13 from 15 to 30 times a year, every year since 1991 when I got back into amateur astronomy after buying a used 8” Celestron telescope from my friend Mark Bro.  Every single time I look at it, (and I took another look just a couple of days ago) I am still thrilled to be able to see a ball of hundreds of thousands of stars 145 light years in diameter more than 25,000 light years away.  It is incredible to me that this object, teeming with stars like our sun, blazes away night after night orbiting our galaxy like we orbit the sun.  What wonders God has assembled to demonstrate His power and His glory to us! On June 5th, Deb and I were privileged to watch the Transit of Venus from a beach on the northwest tip of the Big Island of Hawaii!  Eight years ago, we traveled to Door County Wisconsin to view the previous transit.  We stayed at a wonderful Bed and Breakfast called ‘The Blacksmith Inn”.  It had a huge 2nd floor balcony that spanned the entire eastern side of the inn and gave a beautiful view of Lake Michigan at sunrise.  A perfect place to setup telescopes to view and photograph the event.  Just like this year, clouds threatened to ruin our view of the event, but at the last minute, they cleared away and we were treated to the amazing sight of that perfect little black dot silhouette of Venus against the big yellow disk of the sun.  Was I bored?  Was Deb bored?  Maybe the fact that I immediately began planning our trip to Hawaii to view the next transit would a clue! Even in Hawaii, clouds threatened to spoil our view of the transit.  It took me longer to get setup than I expected, probably because I was so excited to be there, and I missed seeing ‘first contact’ – the moment when you can first detect the disk of Venus at the edge of the Sun.  I had forgotten to adjust the angle of my mount to match the longitude of Hawaii.  It was still set for 42 degrees north which is our latitude here in Iowa but needed to be set to 20 degrees north latitude so the mount would track the Sun correctly as it traveled across the Hawaiian sky.  The other big mistake I made was leaving my jacket at the hotel.  Perhaps you might excuse me, because after all, who takes a jacket to the beach in June in Hawaii?  I planned to use the jacket to cover my head and wrap around the camera to make it easier to see the display on the camera back.  Ever tried to use your cell phone at noon on a beach by the ocean?  How about in a parking lot at noon on a sunny day?  It’s impossible to see the display, right?  Same problem trying to see the image on the back of my camera! I really wish I hadn’t forgotten that jacket!  Nevertheless, I was able to capture 2nd contact, which is when Venus is just inside the edge or ‘limb’ of the Sun’s disk.  The picture is blurry because I had just barely gotten the sun centered in the camera and I had not gotten the exposure right, so it was way over-exposed, but by using some photo processing ‘tricks’ I was able to salvage the shot – not perfect, but at least not missed! Our trip to view the transit really was an adventure!  From racing to get everything setup and then waiting for moments when the clouds cleared off to snap a couple more pictures to capturing the rainbow caused by the light misty rain that swept in now and then, it was an amazing experience!  Contrary to what some might say, astronomy is anything but boring! We also got to visit the twin Keck Telescopes on top of Mauna Kea and ride down beneath the ocean waves in a submarine to explore the coral reef at a depth of 101 feet.  This trip sort of doubled as a celebration of our wedding anniversary which was on May 16th.  Going to Wisconsin in 2004 and to Hawaii this year to watch Venus transit our Sun was worth every penny both times.  I will cherish the memories of visiting both places and viewing these amazing astronomical events with my sweetheart of 36 years as long as I live.  Aloha!