Dr. Mader and Dr. Peaslee hosted a gathering of Physics Research Students and friends to watch the Transit of Venus last night.
Dr. Gonthier set up two telescopes, one for projection of the sun’s image, and the other with a solar filter for safe viewing. He also had a live feed to the telescope in the Harry F. Frissel Observatory in VanderWerf Hall on campus which was trained on the sun to take images during the Transit. Solar viewing shades were available for direct viewing, although the ability to see the small black dot as it moved across the face of the sun varied from person to person.
The clouds rolled in later in the evening, but a few breaks in the clouds allowed everyone a glimpse of this twice-in-a-lifetime event (the previous one was in 2004, but the next one won’t occur until December 2117!) until sunset.