The SUN EARTH DAY observing certificate challenge for 2012 involves taking images of the transit and, using these images and timings to derive an estimate of the AU. This Flickr group is for the uploading of your transit images.
NASA would also like to encourage you to upload pictures of your transit events, star parties, community outreach activities, etc. Make sure you include your name or your club or organization's name and a description of the event.
You can filter these images to see only the ones you choose. You do this by using the "search" feature on the photo pool page.
Using the observing challenge uploaded images, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with other amateur astronomers all over the world, collecting images and timings of the transit, posting these, calculating the parallax angle, and finally deriving the distance to the sun just as pioneering astronomers did for over 200 years, since the first Venus transit was observed by Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree in 1639. Horrocks derived a value for the AU of 59 million miles, just 63% of the known value today. Not bad for a first attempt. Can you can do better!?
Image Requirements: Your transit images should be in JPEG (.jpg) format in as high a resolution as possible and include the following image metadata descriptions:
1. Your name
2. Affiliation (e.g. Astronomy Club, School, Community Group, etc.)
3. Time of observation (UT)
4. Location of observation (country, city, and state)
5. Latitude and longitude of observation location
6. Short description of the equipment used (e.g. camera, telescope, filter, mount, etc.)
7. Any other details needed to understand the image
Once your images are uploaded, go to the Sun Earth Day / Transit of Venus website (venustransit.nasa.gov/2012/getinvolved/observing_certific...). There, you will find detailed instructions on the derivation of the AU and how to download your NASA Observing Challenge Certificate. Good Luck!!
