Transit of Venus, 2012

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:14 am

Hi All,
After a discussion last night at the AGM, it was proposed that we could do a barcelona style trip to Tromso or Svalbard in northern Norway to observe the transit of Venus and the midnight sun.
Iceland was proposed but is actually a little too far south for our needs.
There are ryanair flights to Oslo and then a second fright up north.

Pros and Cons,

Pros,
Midnight sun
transit of venus visible for entire duration
stunning scenery
wild polar bears.

Cons
Always freezing cold
Could be eaten by the local wildlife, i.e polar bears.
2 flights

I need to do some digging and find out the weather prospects for the regions at that time of the year.
If the weather is looking good, then I'm going.!

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 4:19 am

Sounds like it would be cool (excuse the pun) but expensive!

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 10:01 pm

well, our very own Phileas Fogg (Michael Johnson) is on the case, if anyone can come up with a flight plan, he can.

Roy Stewart · Post by **Roy Stewart** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:40 pm

Dublin to Oslo
Oslo to Dublin
114e....
worth a thought..

Cheers Roy

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 9:14 am

yea, Michael Johnson also sent this to me. Confirms what you found.

Had a bit of free time, so went looking at Venus transits in June for the laugh thereafter the discussions on thursday night... as you do [:)] Surprisingly enough, in June, Tromso is far enough north to have the sun visible for all 24 hours of the day, so that far north and you'll definitely have to sun up... check out

http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/where-when/ ... sit-times/

to see. It says midnight to 7am for the transit in Tromso, but average cloud cover is 76%... so not good odds [:)]

Still, I trawled around a bit, and if ye don't mind a bit of gowling around with inter-airport connections, buses and trains and what-not in Oslo, we could get there and back for, oh, EUR300 odd at the moment [:)]

RyanAir fly Dublin to Ryges (just outside Oslo)... leaving on the saturday or monday, and coming back on the thursday or sunday of that week give you the best prices... EUR75 before taxes and bag, so I'm guessing ballpark EUR140 with all that included. Norwegian(.com) Airlines then fly from Oslo Gardermoen to Tromso on those days, and giving enough time to get between one and the other (bus to Oslo, I assume, and another bus or train then to Gardermoen), I hope, flights there are coming in at around EUR160 return... so EUR300 if you were to book now would see you up to Tromso on Monday, back on Thursday for the Venus Transit in June...

I deffo think Oslo and then onto Tromso is a viable route. I'll check starrynight to see how much we'd see if we stayed in Oslo.

John O'Mahony · Post by **John O'Mahony** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 8:10 pm

I believe I am pretty well placed from here although I may have to bring the scope into work! I picked up an 8" Orion solar filter for the 8" SCT which should be perfect. Hopefully the weather will hold out. It has been crap here since before Christmas. My new scope has cobwebs in it due to lack of use.
Norway sounds brilliant-what a great experience. I would love to organise a fishing trip there too as its supposed to be great. Don't fancy being eaten though

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 4:48 pm

You lucky a man John, you'll be getting a tan watching it, we'll probabily be freezing to death up north for it.

Anyway, I've done abit of looking up regarding sites.
All times are in Irish summer time for easy comparison.
Transit start/end times are 22.03pm-4.50am, 5-6th June.
Duration = ~6h 47mins

Limerick, sunrise at 4.31, 19mins visible, 52.4 north
Malin head, sunrise at 4.25, 25mins visible, 55.3 north
Malin head, every 100meters in altitude, sun rises approx 2 mins earlier

Oslo, sunrise 2.05, approx 2hours 45m visible. 60 north

Reykjavik, 00.09-01.30, 1h21m visible before sunsets,
sunrises at 3h20m, so 1h30m mins after sunrise.

Tromso, all the transit is visible, transit starts at midnight with sun 2.5 degrees above horison. 69.66 north

Slavbard, all the transit is visible, min altitude of the Sun during the transit is ~11 degrees, 78 north

If the weather prospects were good in svalbard, I'd deffo be going, tbh I'm not sure what to do.

see
http://www.climatetemp.info/norway/tromso.html\
and
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... -Map-2.gif
and
http://www.astroevents.no/venus060612en.html

Also, for svalbard, there is a weather station there, you can check out the days of june in previous years
http://www.wunderground.com/history/sta ... atename=NA
After having a look at thois website for svalbard, it would be pot luck if we saw it there.

MikeJohnson · Post by **MikeJohnson** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 4:51 pm

Hopefully I'm posting this in the right place now... first ever post up on here

Another option worth considering for the Venus transit might be Kiruna, in Sweden... we'd need 2 flights to get there, Dublin-Stockholm with Aer Lingus and the Stockholm-Kiruna with SAS economy... looked at a few options there now, best one I can see is out Monday 4th and back Friday 8th... Flights are again (ballpark) EUR140 with Aer Lingus and EUR132 with SAS at the moment... return... and Sweden is a hell of a lot cheaper than Norway, seemingly

Though Kiruna is not QUITE as far north as Tromso... it's still pretty close, though.

Looked at Svalbard as well, but that's WAY expensive... EUR500 to EUR600 minimum... anywhere in Russia is even more expensive from what I can see, EUR750 or so... nearly as much as it would cost to go to Novosibrisk for it... and yes, I did check

Mike

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 5:06 pm

Hi Michael,
Kiruna, sounds like a good place, have you looked up what kind of weather they get for that time of the year. ?

MikeJohnson · Post by **MikeJohnson** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 6:35 pm

It was saying 74% as opposed to 76% for Tromso for cloud cover... though whether that's the probability of there being SOME clouds in the sky or a totally clouded out sky, it doesn't say. Interestingly enough, Limerick has an 84% probability of cloud for the transit... I'm guessing somewhere we can see 90% - 100% of the sun above the horizon is a good starting point anyways

http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/where-when/ ... sit-times/

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 6:40 pm

74%, gosh thats doesnt give me that fuzzy warm feeling, what do you think ?

MikeJohnson · Post by **MikeJohnson** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 11:24 am

Nope, no warm fuzzy feelings available for this transit unless we go to Thailand or somewhere that far east, I fear

Though, and correct me if I'm wrong, a) I would imagine going somewhere that the sun is above the horizon for the entire length of the transit would radically increase our chances of seeing the sun/transit if there are clouds in the sky, and b) nowhere can be as cloudy as Ireland, can it

?

MikeJohnson · Post by **MikeJohnson** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 2:23 pm

On the Kiruna plus side, there's a place about 80km away called Abisko, nicely remote and very popular for aurora viewing in the winter and hiking in the summer: -

http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/Attra ... ng/Abisko/

There's cabins available for rent up there that we stayed at when we were there 3 years ago, nicely finished, spacious, warm, etc. that can sleep up to 5 people... prices are EUR140 a night for the cabin (plus bills, cleaning, etc I think): -

http://www.abiskomountainlodge.se/en/

Barring that, we staying in Kiruna itself the last time in a place called Camp Ripan that was also pretty nice, it's EUR550 odd euros for a cabin for the 4 nights (Mon-Thurs) I put into the search...

http://www.tripadvisor.ie/Hotel_Review- ... pland.html

Just more fuel for the conversational fire

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 7:29 pm

I'm not one to shy away from a long flight but I was thinking Malin head!

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:50 pm

Frank Ryan wrote:I'm not one to shy away from a long flight but I was thinking Malin head!

Going up north is deffo on the cards, although I'm sure about malin head itself, I have visions of been in mist laden fields surrounded by cows

, why not meet up with the NIAAS lads, they would surely know alot better then us where to go in the area, and they're as crazy as us, they'd be definitely out observing this. what you think ?

I'd love to get a cheap flight to Sweden, but the cloud odds are not a whole lot better then here.
The "hassle / odds increase" analysis in my head is saying it mightn't be worth the effort, and feedback in the meetings is not tending to going abroad for it anyway.