June 7, 2012
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Jack & Me watch the Venus Transit: ‘My Fictitious Life:Pt 109
Mebbe it was the lawn chairs I set out for passers-by to use while waiting their turn to see the stupendous event which caught his eye. I was set up with the binoculars there on a grassy knoll near the street. Six AM, waiting for ‘Here Comes the Sun’ in order to see in person an astronomical event which even my grand-kids’ kids will be lucky to live to witness. Anyway, the minute I saw him I knew I was in for a treat.
We’d met one night, on a family camping trip to the Vineyard; I snuck out of the tent and hiked the couple miles to the compound at Hyanisport. Him and Bobby and Shriver on the lawn. Even let me get my hands on the ball once or twice. Out of mercy, but who’s counting.
So Jack just had to ask “You don’t miss historic moments, do you Johnny?”
“Not if I still have a pulse.” I adjusted the makeshift observation system on the stepladder.
‘It’s a rare conjunction.”
“Yeah, like mine in Dallas. You remember where you were that day?”
“Of course, Jack. The bus driver turned on the radio. Then later it was on TV. I felt so helpless. All I could do was watch.”
“Don’t feel bad guy. It meant a lot to me just knowing you were a witness. And isn’t that kinda like today, with Venus? I mean, they’re partying down there. Midnight, Venus time, the Earth hanging directly overhead in the sky, turning slowly. And every sentient being with a truly human heart focused on Earth’s twin, at least once a century.”
“A nice way to look at it, Mr President. I had wondered a bit what the hell the transit oughta do for me, I mean, it’s just six hours of a spot crossing the sun..”
“Ask not: what can the Transit do for you…” he started, that Boston accent giving me the same chill as it did 50 years ago.
“So, what can we say to the revelers on Venus?” I asked, lining up the binoculars for a photo-op.
“Oh, I dunno, mebbe ‘Ich bin ein Venetian!” Jack quipped, and eased over toward the Bosch & Lomb eyepieces. I tackled him at the last minute.
“Jeezuz, you’ll kill your eyes if you look at it directly, you’ll be a Venetian Blind, you dumbie! No, we project the image onto this white card, and take a picture. Here, the camera’s ready.”
“That’s a camera?” He didn’t like the looks of my antique Pentax.
“Yeah, it’s a dinosaur, but it works, and so..
“Personally, I like the Zapruder XJ-99.” Jack opined. I’d never heard of it.
So anyway, we did get this shot. Definitely not NASA standards. But at least it was first-person, no on-line intermediary. Momentos, I guess I should call ‘em.
“Nowadays anything can be faked. Who’s that guy, did that movie about you?” I asked him.
“Forget it, he’s not worth a crater on Venus.” Jack looked at his Rolex and shook my hand.
“It’s been fun, Sol, and glad to see you’re still with us.”
“The same to you, Prez”
Comments (23)
My Venus is in Gemini. Does that mean I can have a little fun with you AND Jack?
By the by, how did you get that penguin in the pic?
Great shot! I would definitely call that NASA quality!
great shot.
Nice job with the binocular reimaging. I’m sure you must have caught an amazing pic of the annular eclipse that way a few weeks ago if you were in an area to view it.
We are startled to see that caption drifting across the heavens. Who knew there was a verdana over venus?
You are so clever – really! I wou;d have never been able to rig up anything to view the transit and instead I’d have seared my retinas… I think Bobby would have been more fun watching the transit…
You and Jack. Who woulda thunk it?
Ask not what the transit can do for you, but ask for Jack to find out what you can do for your country.
I am glad you tackled Jack and saved his eyes.
missed it. damn.
@we_deny_everything - The captioned heavens is part of a Nat’l Science Foundation grant. From our vantage point, only about 17% of celestial bodies currently have those floating space-based labels. Green was chosen for Venus precisely to show up against the Sun during this year’s transit. Romney wants to kill the budget for the remainder though.
@SoullFire - We did have a partial solar a while ago, plus a string of lunar eclipses. I’d have to look up the dates, although I do watch every one.
I think that’s the central point; just making sure to see it. A responsibility, since one view of quantum reality has the observer demanded in order to even de-fuzz the wave-function of the event. So every set of eyes helps, ha
@Kellsbella - he showed up in a suit & tie; made me feel underdressed, barefoot and in cut-offs.
@jsolberg - Yes, but he doesn’t look like Lee Marvin.
The last stellar event I watched was a lunar eclipse a year or two ago. I was too lazy for either the anular eclipse or the Venus transit.
There was a delightful episode of Red Dwarf in which the two main characters teleport into the 6th floor of the Book Depository and accidentally push Mr. Oswald out the window. They later find the US involved in nuclear war as a consequence of JFK’s survival. In an attempt to correct matters, they explain things to JFK and he accompanies them back to Dallas, November 1963, with a rifle, and takes up a position on the grassy knoll.
@Roadkill_Spatula - Wow, fiction stranger than reality. I’d thought of warping history a bit also, in my post, but I’m so busy with cottonwood trees, dryers wreaking revenge on human hubris, and electrical vagaries that I had only time to write an almost-real report. You probably can sympathize. Have a blast S. of da border, guy.
Once you’ve seen one solar transit, you’ve seen them all.
Did you see the great cryptic crossword clue in The Nation recently? It was something like “Jack Fitzgerald Kennedy due to be whipped” and the straight clue was whipped for FLAGELLATED and the cryptic portion was JACK = FLAG, FITZGERALD = ELLA and KENNEDY = TED.
If they gave an eclipse and nobody saw it, did it really happen?
Sic transit gloria mundi.
@DEISENBERG - A wonderfully droll comment, D. But you are only half right. The coincidence happens twice, with 8 year spacing, every hundred years or so. But you and I can, though, pending eternal life, claim to have ‘seen ‘em all’. This time around.
@twoberry - Wow, I can only hope I would have deciphered that clue, given enough free time. I’d probably have been stuck between her sung scat and the version of scat which means something entirely different. hallelu-yah et venusa cum solis.
I had myself a makeshift observation system on a stepladder….but I never got to see a president, my dad met Harry Truman, does that count?
@seedsower - Oy, Truman is ten points(!) He’s my first president, so I have a soft spot for the guy.
Beth, I’ll be sure to invite you to the next space photo-op, whenever that is.
Fun with optics! Good for you. It was grey and cloudy here, as it often is.I hear Tahiti’s the place to really Cook during a transit. Ah well. Next time perhaps! As a result of a nasty thermometer accident I did once see Mercury cross my son’s face. Luckily it didn’t dribble into his mouth. (I’m guessing it said, “EEK! Lips!” But I could be wrong.)
Zapruder!
@gnostic1 - Ah how have we fallen… I worried that I’d have voyaged the whole way out to the front yard and for naught. I’d have to console myself with discovering an island out there.
And Hg reminds me to locate my litre bottle of the liquid, salvaged drops at a time from hospital tear-out sink traps. Three whole 300 bed facilities it took to amass the treasure. The boss thought me mad for doing it. Perhaps he had a point, at least as the pathology progressed.
Dearly hope to somehow join you in 2175 for the next show.