In the mad frenzy of making solar filters and rebuilding a PST and shooting on a variety of scopes and cameras, I learned a few things yesterday.
1) Outreach is great fun. Nothing better than having a bunch of questioning people looking at the Universe in awe. Favourite part of the day, when a rough looking older gent walked past, came back and asked a few questions. I offered him a look through the glasses and the scopes and he was silent for a moment watching it, then quietly said "So that's how Cook felt" and then smiled and walked off.
2) Seeing is a funny thing. The best views of the day were through the $200 Celestron 80mm F11 refractor with the free solar filter that came with it. Better than the view through the 105mm triplet or the SCTs or the Newt.
3) I really want a camera with a bigger FOV than the DMK21!! C'mon technology, bring out a fast big mono chip for really cheap
4) Autostakkert does a much better job than registax for stacking images.
5) Be more prepared. I thought I had done heaps of prep. I was wrong.
6) It is a lot more fun to watch than to image, and it is a lot more fun when it is a shared experience. Imaging can take you out of the moment. In the end I'm glad I did both extensively. A long event like the transit is an ideal way to get both pursuits in.
7) Even the most basic ideas of astronomy are not well known by the public.
I learned a lot more too, but the phone is ringing, I'll come back to my thoughts later!
What I learned from the transit of Venus.
