Here's another video of the event in question, which, BTW, we'll ALL be able to share in! Most of you lot will see the tail end of it on the 6th of June, at sunrise, while we Yanks will see at least the beginning of it on the 5th, toward evening. I'll see if I can get some better images of it at sunset, from my back yard.

Thanks Dave 
I'm hoping to be able to see this event, may that day be cloudless

Well, I WAS going to say "on the islands", instead, but this sounded just a little cheekier, and we ALL know how much I love to be cheeky.

You should hear me when I'm chatting with my friend, Robert (pronounced, of course, Row-Bear), who is French Canadian, and who lives in a small town just outside Montreal. He's one of those folks who want Quebec to secede from Canada, and is almost militant about it. When he starts in on the rants about secession, I usually have to call him a "Limey", to get him to stop. But boy, does his face get purple!

(for those of us who aren't fully aware, Canada, and by extension, Quebec, are still technically a part of the British Commonwealth, thus making the population thereof, also technically, British. Thus, the "Limey" remark.)

It's on toward sunset that you have to consider most, Syber. You'll only be catching the very beginning of the transit, roughly an hour prior to sundown. I've got cloudy skies forcast for the morning, with some clearing and warming in the afternoon. Hopefully we won't get our usual "surprise" thunderstorms then.

I've trashed a pair of new welding goggles, and made a filter cap for the video camera, and it works perfectly. I've also made some minor mods to the tripod I was using during the eclipse, in an effort to stabilize it, and make transitions a bit smoother. I'm hoping that the video I make of the Venus transit will turn out better than the eclipse video did.

Well, the goggles still work, if you can hold a wink in your left eye while you're welding.

Lots of clouds here, but they're supposed to move east, so I'm hopeful.

What you need, Syber, is some way to make those clouds condense into rain all at one time. Maybe a few tons of powdered metallic Sodium, shot from the world's largest spud cannon? Just be sure to fire the cannon remotely, from a few dozen miles away.

I was hoping to post a "blow by blow" account of my transit experience as the event progressed, but Internet connection issues have prevented me from doing so, so I popped open Notepad, and started to work. Here, then, is my "mini-Journal" of my experiences during the transit. The video will follow in a day or so.

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Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 1:50PM

I'm just setting up the equipment that I'll need to record the transit of Venus that's set to occur in roughly 15 minutes, and will continue over the course of the next 6 hours, finishing well past sunset here. I'll be recording what I can of the transit from now until the sun sets, but the clouds look like they have other plans. Drat! Well, I'll just have to see what happens, since I'm fresh out of powdered metallic Sodium, and similarly lack a sufficiently large potato cannon.


2:05PM

The transit has supposedly begun, but I can't yet see anything, due to the cloud cover, the edge of which is perversely hanging near where the sun is, looking as if any second the sun will peek through. Sadly, it looks like the rest of the clouds seem to be moving south, and if the section that I'm hoping will dissipate moves in that direction, it will only make matters worse. I've made the introduction clip, along with a couple of other clips that describe various things of interest (to me, at least), to fill the time. The video camera that I'm using to actually record the transit is doing it's thing behind me, for the time being just recording the cloud cover. Still plenty of time, though, to catch the transit, should the clouds decide to cooperate.


2:40PM

As I had hoped against, but feared all the same, the cloud cover has migrated south, more completely covering the sun, and giving me scant hope of catching the "money shots" that I desire. In fact, the cloud cover has also thickened pretty much everywhere else, and it's beginning to look like it might rain. This is bad, not just from the standpoint of catching the transit, but also because I have my laptop outside, and rain and computers usually don't mix in the most pleasant of ways. Looks like I'll be moving inside for a while.


4:45PM

The sun has miraculously come out from behind the clouds, and the sky is clearing quite quickly! YAY!!! Sadly, though, the welding goggle lens that I made for the camera simply lets in too much light, making focus tracking next to impossible, which is frustrating. However, I still had several pairs of the eclipse glasses handy, so I just taped a lens over the front of the camera. Hopefully, I'll be able to use the recorded video using the darker lens, but I won't know until I get it all shot, and can see the results as I compile the video. I've got enough footage that I may be able to make two separate episodes, which will allow me to bypass (sort of) YouTube's 15 minute time limit on videos. We'll have to see.


7:25PM

Well, the clouds have returned, but only some very wispy ones. The sun is setting through these clouds, and they've obscured the sun enough that focus has been affected, so I've decided to switch back to the welding lens, to shoot the last bit of the sun as it sets behind the hills to the west. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!


8:00PM

Well, the transit is done for me, the sun has set, I've packed up my equipment, and it's time to compose the video. but before I can do that, I want to get this "mini-journal" posted to the Datahopa forums, so that I can share my experiences with my online friends. Folks in England (well all of western Europe, actually) will possibly have their chance to catch the end of the transit in roughly an hour and a half, as the sun rises. I hope that someone will make the effort to get up early, and try to view it (weather permitting, or course).