The June 8, 2004 Transit of Venus was a big hit for me.
Judith, my father, and I went up to northern Jersey shore for the transit. It was a perfect 2-day vacation. We drove the long way, and took the Lewes ferry, and found a B&B in Point Pleasant beach that was completely empty except for us. We had read about a group that would be viewing the transit from that beach on the boardwalk. We figured if we might not see the transit due to clouds, at least fail to see it with other people who could commiserate.
The next morning we got up at 4:30 am to get to the beach with a big telescope and not much plan, but luckily the sun came out and we got some great photos mixed in with the bad ones. :> Right when the sun came through the clouds my father and I could see Venus with the naked eye, but Judith's eyes are still having trouble.
Our setup was very simple and effective. We were the only folks projecting the image. We laid the telescope across the arms of a lawn chair, lined up the angle of the sun, projected the eyepiece onto a piece of office paper, and draped a velvet cloth around the telescope so the sun didn't hit the paper. Then my father sat on the sand for an hour and a half keeping the lawnchair tracking the sun. (I never said this was an intelligent setup, just simple!)
A couple of exemplary pix:
Our first good image
A nice third contact
