Transit of Venus Schools Competition

[AstroJunk]

Hey all,

I've been working with a task force of Australian Land Surveyors who are keen to use the ToV 2012 as a project to promote surveying as a career path (it turns out that there is a desparate shortage of surveyors in Oz).

The team have raised a lot of money with the aim of putting as many sun projection telescopes "SolarScopes" into as many schools as possible along with a free 'suryeyor' to do some fun excercises! There is the worlds simplest competition to enter to get one for free.

If you are a teacher or want to twist your kids' teachers arm, the competition is over here: www.transitofvenus.com.au (http://www.transitofvenus.com.au)

BTW, those Solarscopes are great - We are ordering them by the pallet load and can land them in Australia for about 80 bucks (half retail price) if anyone is interested. The team are not making any money out of this at all, infact they have pledged tens of thousands of dollars to the project!

My interest is purely from an astronomical support perspective, and to have fun spending someone elses money - how shallow am I :lol:

[AstroJunk]

And I happen to know that if your school enters before the closing date on Thursday, they will have (with the current numbers) a better than 50% chance of winning.

Worth the five mins it will take to enter?! :thumbsup:

[Poita]

I'll be strong-arming the school tomorrow!

BTW, do you have any details on the solar scopes?

[AstroJunk]

http://www.solarscope.com/en/index.en.html

They are these things - they work very well and are great for groups.

[Shark Bait]

My Son's Primary School is keen. The beauty of this event is that it covers Science, Math and History in one hit. :thumbsup:

Thanks.

[AstroTourist]

Good news. The competion closing date which was 15 March has been extended to 23rd March. See www.transitofvenus.com.au (http://www.transitofvenus.com.au)
Another week to get your local school involved.
Terry

[Shark Bait]

On behalf of my Son's School, I would like to thank the Surveyors and all of the Sponsors for making these SolarScopes available for the Students to study the Transit of Venus. His Primary School, along with every other School that entered is going to recieve one of these projection scopes. The scopes will be presented by a Surveyor sometime in May.

It is going to be a big event. I hope the skies are clear on the day. :sunny:

[AstroJunk]

Thanks Stu, I shall pass your message on to the team.

I am very impressed at how keen the surveying industry have been to get involved - they initially budgeted for little over 100 of these scopes, and went on to raise enough for several hundred! Of course that meant as you know, that everyone was a winner. Nobody on the organising committee would ever have dreamed of that :D

It's been a pleasure to work with these folk - they are true pros.

[h0ughy]

is it too late to nominate some schools?

[Shark Bait]

Hi David,

The Transit of Venus website is still offering the possibility of a Surveyor visiting schools wanting to run some activities. Unfortunately, it looks like the time to place an entry for a SolarScope has expired.

The link below will take you to a form if you would like to have a Surveyor make a visit:

http://www.transitofvenus.com.au/School_Competition.html

[Shark Bait]

A Surveyor from a local firm at North Lakes presented the SolarScope to the Science Club at my Son's school yesterday.

My thanks to Mr Geoff Wright for making the time to visit the school and explain the reasons why the Transit of Venus is so rare and the role of Surveyors in industry and our daily lives, past and present.

If the weather is kind, over 600 students and teachers will get a chance to see the transit safely with their own eyes.

[AstroJunk]

Hey Stu,

how did it go? The weather was perfect and the broadcast event was an absolute hoot...

[Shark Bait]

Hi Jonathan,

We had a great day with clear skies from the start of the transit to the finish. Geoff Wright, the Surveyor who presented the SolarScope to the school, made a special visit and spent a good portion of his morning with the students as they passed through the scopes. In addition to the SolarScope, I set up the 80mm to project an image onto white card and a Baader filtered 12" Dob. The views were superb. One of the better images is attached.

The support of the Science Club Teacher and the School Admin made it possible for everyone to take part and see the transit. A total of just over 600 people.

The Science Club will probably expand in numbers after this event.

How did you go? Were you at a school as well?

[AstroJunk]

Kind of: The UQ School of Astrophysics.

I put on a live webacast that attracted nearly 400,000 views! http://www.ustream.tv/channel/transit2012

I have to admit that it went a little mad, with messages coming from all over the world that it was being displayed in schools, museums and public spaces one just about every continent! The funniest part was Mexico City watching is set up!

Goodness knows exactly how many people actually watched it, the images are popping up all over (We had a unique timing signal on each of the three broadcast telescopes so it's easy to find out where we were used)

[Shark Bait]

I saw your efforts on the evening news and managed to dub the segment on the DVD recorder. Looks like you all had a lot of fun. :thumbsup: