Friends of Sauratown Mountains and Forsyth Astronomy Club gathered atop Pilot Mountain State Park for an event referred to as "Transit of Venus". The planet Venus passes across the sun. One might think this event is an annual one but it is not. Since the invention of the telescope in 1610, there have been only 8. The next one occurs in 2117, that is 105 years from now. So if you missed this one, as we did, you're out of luck.
The "Friends" invited members to come to Pilot Mountain State Park to witness this event. Cloudy conditions held the numbers down. Still we had a pleasant evening with some great views toward the Blue Ridge.
Astronomy club members had all sorts of telescopes set up including this home made viewing contraption. Made completely with material purchased at Wal-Mart, it was designed to project an image of the sun with Venus, on a shower curtain stretched across a large flower pot. During the event which lasted from 6pm-8:30pm, there was a window of a minute or two when the sun popped through the cloud cover and ever so briefly a few scopes were able to focus in on the target.
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