Has anyone in this bitch seen Venus?

Some advice from the bbc's web-site. I can't be arsed with all this, can you?

How dangerous IS looking at the sun? Is it more dangerous today than usual? I'm sure I've looked at the sun lots of times.

METHOD 1: Cut two holes in card for binocular eye-pieces. Push card onto binoculars and fix with tape. Block one lens (with lens cap, for example). Holding binoculars at waist height, angle towards Sun - do not look through them. Move binoculars around until card shadow minimised on viewing surface (piece of white card best). During six-hour transit, move set-up to follow path of Sun across sky, for example by mounting it on tripod or chair.
METHOD 2: Take piece of stiff card and pierce with pin. Hold it up and, looking away from the Sun, adjust angle of card until shadow minimised. Pinhole will project image of Sun into middle of shadowed area. Place another piece of card under shadow and adjust distance to get best picture - more distance gives larger but fainter image. Hole must be clean and as small as possible.
WARNING: Never observe the Sun with the naked eye or telescope, camera or other optical device. Doing so will seriously damage eyesight and may lead to permanent blindness.

I want to watch it on telly.

Barry, can you get the BBC feed on yr pooter? http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/live/now1.ram

I think that might KILL US ALL!!!

But, in honor of the danger of blindness, I am going for an eye test today.

It looks a bit like a big round belly.

Archel I think I have the opposite feeling--watching the little picture makes me feel very small when I think about the actual size of what I'm seeing. I like the belly comparison.

Bless you Mark but, no, clearly an idiot. That said, I didn't do it for long. I'd imagine its staring at the sun trying to see this, rather than just looking at it quickly that BURNS YOUR EYES OUT. However, I am not a scientist, and if I go blind at any point in my life, I will know why.

I think I will try the pinhole camera thing on my break. Looking at it on a bit of paper is pretty boring though, innit?

You can see Venus anyway on a clear night, it just looks like a big bright star.

It's happening RIGHT NOW Matt. For another hour or so, anyway.

He says it will be over by 12:20 so look soon!

I was a bit sceptical about this anyway, but it was even more rubbish than I thought. How are you supposed to see a speck on a 2 cm circle on a bit of card, when you can't see it on a bloody great sun in the sky? Whoever dreamed up that method of observing this was clearly having a LAUGH.

Fuckers.

I didn't see anyone else looking. Perhaps they've all been scared off.

'hole must be clean and as small as possible'.

Clearly, there are mechanics to this which are beyond my ken. Thinking that you can't see anything and making it bigger probably isn't such a good idea after all.

aw it's right at the edge now.

I saw the sun on TV early this morning, watching the news. It's on the cover of some papers, as well. But the pinhole thing doesn't really work. I ran into some scientific types outside the British Museum trying to look at the sun with a pair of binoculars and a sheet of white paper. Of course it didn't work. Ah well. Hello, Venus. Goodbye, Venus. We'll catch you on the rebound in 8 years.

I don't think I was in a position to look. But I hope that those who were, or knew how, one way or another, did so - and enjoyed it.

How was it for you? Is it always over so quickly? I can't believe I waited so long.

I suppose I am making a good deal more of our prospective visit than it deserves. It must be because I have got it into my head that we are bound to have some kind of sentimental outbreak amongst us, and that will give a chance for advances on the part of anybody disposed in that direction. A little change of circumstance often hastens on a movement that has long been in preparation... So with our little party, with any little party of persons who have got used to each other; leave them undisturbed and they might remain in a state of equilibrium forever; but let anything give them a shake or a jar, and the long-striving but hindered affinities come all at once into play and finish the work of a year in five minutes.

RIIIIIIIIIIIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkjiF7c26mE

http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Venus_glory_large-550x580.jpg

‘Rainbow’ on Venus Seen for First Time

A rainbow-like optical phenomenon known as a ‘glory’ has been imaged for the first time on another planet. It was seen in the atmosphere of our nearest neighbor, Venus by ESA’s Venus Express orbiter.

Rainbows and glories occur when sunlight shines on cloud droplets. While rainbows arch across the sky, glories appear as circular rings of colored concentric rings centered on a bright core.

http://youtu.be/Lk5TCRQOxcY

I remember reading that Venus Express had captured evidence of ongoing volcanism, was that ever scientifically confirmed?

I remember reading that Venus Express had captured evidence of ongoing volcanism, was that ever scientifically confirmed?

Apparently, yes!

Now, using a near-infrared channel of the spacecraft’s Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) to map thermal emission from the surface through a transparent spectral window in the planet’s atmosphere, an international team of planetary scientists has spotted localised changes in surface brightness between images taken only a few days apart.

“We have now seen several events where a spot on the surface suddenly gets much hotter, and then cools down again,” says Eugene Shalygin from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, and lead author of the paper reporting the results in Geophysical Research Letters this month.

“These four ‘hotspots’ are located in what are known from radar imagery to be tectonic rift zones, but this is the first time we have detected that they are hot and changing in temperature from day to day. It is the most tantalising evidence yet for active volcanism.”

The hotspots are found along the Ganiki Chasma rift zone close to the volcanoes Ozza Mons and Maat Mons. Rift zones are results of fracturing of the surface, which is often associated with upwelling of magma below the crust. This process can bring hot material to the surface, where it may be released through fractures as a lava flow.

Time to get that amazing Soviet era Venera program going again, seen enough of Mars!

Unbelievably bright this morning. Due SSE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD_5Tp7W-Gg

I saw it. Very very bright.

should just rename itself Moon 2 imo

little Mercury hovers faintly nearby as well. planet party imo

spotted that thanks to early airport run