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I am surprised to see no posts on this topic over the past two days. My condolences to the astronomers, professional and amateur, who were denied a view of the transit. And to all of you who had various devices ready for the viewing. I wound up watching the whole event on slooh.com. The program on this site, though a bit amateurishly produced, had some interesting commentary, really knowledgeable guests, and informative interviews. The video feeds were from a number of stations around the world. All-in-all, a pretty enjoyable six hours or so. One topic of discussion was the "black drop effect," whereby an extremely critical measuring moment -- when the outer edge of Venus contacts the inner edge of the Sun -- is in fact very hard to judge because the black of space appears to join up with the black of the planet before actual contact. This was a problem for earlier observers of previous transits, who had no other means of measurement but the purely visual. You can see this effect by closing one eye and observing the gap between your thumb and forefinger as you slowly bring them together. Against a light background, you'll see a mirage-like dark band fill the space just before contact. Doug
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