sun | Geof Franklin

Every 13 or 33 years in May the planet Mercury wanders across the Earth’s view of the Sun. (This also happens in November, every 7, 13 or 33 years.) This event is called a transit and is extremely important in Astronomy. The Transit of Venus, for example, was used to calculate the size of our solar system and looking for the slight dimming of distant stars caused by transiting planets is how we Continue reading Transit of Mercury →

Geof Franklin

Researching ways to improve scientist’s access to data. Programming software to solve humanity’s problems. Disseminating emergency preparedness knowledge. Sharing knowledge about science. Practicing amateur radio. Serving humanity through volunteer efforts. Drives a robot to work.

www.geof-franklin.me

We had planned on attending a local viewing of the transit at one of the local colleges but they were socked in with clouds and were only going to show the nasa video feed. I can do that at home, what I wanted to see was the actual transit from my location, or at least as much of it as possible since the final hours would occur after sunset for our side of earth.

Geof using a netbook while in the background a telescope projects an image of the sun on a piece of white posterboard. — Geof streaming the NASA Edge broadcast and using twitter on the netbook while the telescope projects an image of the sun on a piece of white posterboard.

Continue reading Transit of Venus →

Geof Franklin

www.geof-franklin.me

Researching ways to improve scientist's access to data. Programming software to solve humanity's problems. Disseminating emergency preparedness knowledge. Sharing knowledge about science. Practicing amateur radio. Serving humanity through volunteer efforts.