June 4 to June 6, 2012 Transit of Venus from Barstow, CA
In 2012 at the second Transit of Venus in our lifetime (we were clouded out of the 2004 Transit), we decided we wanted to be sure to see it so we took vacation and planned a trip to California with the hopes of clear skies. Originally we planned to be on the coast but then we talked to friends who were familiar with California's weather. They convinced us there was likely to be fog along the coast and we'd be better off inland. So we decided on Barstow, CA at the edge of the Mojave.
We arrived at LAX and rented our car, then drove inland to Barstow. We had allowed a day to get acclimated to our surroundings and to find an appropriate place to view the transit.
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We stayed at the Best Western Plus Commerce Parkway which was kind of near the center of Barstow.
Our room was a mini-suite with a desk area separated from the sleeping area.
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Here is the view from our hotel - overlooking truck parking, the McDonalds and the Pilot Truck Stop with a nice view of the mountains in the background.
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Before flying out, we spent significant time on Google maps to locate a good viewing area with an open vista of the western horizon since the sun would be setting as the transit finished. And two of the areas we had picked out were actually quite nice EXCEPT for the one thing Google couldn't show us. The Wind. It was blowing at 30 miles an hour all day, every day. So unless we could find a sheltered area to watch from we weren't going to be able to take enough good images to do the timelapse video we had planned.
We finally found a defunct shopping center - the Factory Merchants Outlet Mall. On the backside of the stores between the two wings of the mall, it had little alcoves. Here is Barry checking out the sun on our scouting trip.
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Here is the sunset as viewed from our chosen location. The building provides interest to the sunset.
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June 4, 2012 Transit of Venus The next day we got up, ate breakfast and headed over to the shopping center to set up. We had gotten the ETX on the mount and sighted in. We were sitting around waiting on the event to start when a security guard drove up and got out of his vehicle. He asked us what we were up to and we explained all about the Transit and the wind and that we were hoping to use the shelter from the shopping center. Fortunately the Transit of Venus had been all over the newspaper and he had heard about it. He told us it was okay, we could stay. We invited him back to view it once it started but he never came back.
Setting up and getting ready for the Transit of Venus.
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Our Setup - The Orion SkyView Pro Mount, Meade ETX-90 telescope with Solar filter and Canon 10D Camera. The mount parts traveled checked in large Pelican cases labeled Snooper and Beaks. The ETX was in Lori's backpack and Barry had the camera in his carry-on. We got more than a few looks from the TSA folks.
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Barry aligning the ETX on the Sun.
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Barry watching the Transit through binoculars.
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Here is a view of the transit from the camera LCD.
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Lori checks in on the Transit using binoculars.
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An image of the Transit of Venus - June 5, 2012 Barstow, CA.
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Time lapse video of the transit of Venus June 5, 2012 (Click on Image for Video); Meade ETX with Canon 10D DSLR; Barstow, California
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Back in LA at the Hilton Hotel near LAX - the view out the window.
