Continued from previous message.

rain. I never fell asleep! My alarm rang at 02h EDST on the 8th. but I 
was already moping around in bed rather much awake. 

Off I go!
 -------
    A last minute check of my stuff went well. I packed everything 
into a rolling luggage, threw on a thin jacket, and stepped out of my 
house by 03h. I deliberately allowed a full two hours to reach 
Manhattan because at that hour transit runs at long intervals. Much, 
like up to half!, of the travel time would be waits between buses or 
trains. 
    My lucky star was with me. I spotted a bus coming right away at my 
home bus stop, flagged it, and rode to the subway. The train was 
waiting in the station, the terminal for this line, and left after 
only a few minutes more wait. A change to a second train in downtown 
Brooklyn was made after only a few minutes more wait. 
    I arrived in downtown Yorkville, near the park, by 04:30 EDST, 
with dawn just breaking in the northeast. The air, tho moist, was 
cool. I skipped the final transit leg, by bus, and walked the 
kilometer to the park. Street traffic was thin enough to let me skip 
stop lights at the corners. Most of it was trucks making dropoffs or 
pickups. Foot traffic was dense on 2nd and 1st Avs and along 86th St. 
My bus passed me about 2/3 way to the park; I didn't care. 

Setting up
 --------
    Carl Schurz Park has adits at every block along its length on East 
End Av, some with stairs to the promenade, others with ramps. I took 
one of the ramp adits to ease my way for the rolling luggage. On the 
deck I met Charlie Ridgway, fellow NYSkier, already adjusting his 
binocular rig. He hurried to the Park after seeing encouraging weather 
from his home in Parkchester, the Bronx. If the weather were more 
unfavorable, he would have been at a el station near his home. (Els 
are a quinessentially New York vantage point for casual starviewing.) 
    The moon hung in the east, dull with her markings well defined. 
Vega was about overhead. We were too much into animated banter to 
inspect them in our optics. 
    In a slow steady stream other astronomers arrived and quickly set 
up their gear. They were from NYSkies, National Space Society, Amateur 
Astronomers Association, or were nonaffliiates. (There is substantial 
cross-membership among city astronomers.) With minutes to go before 
sunrise, the promenade was dotted along some 150 meters on its 
riverfront fence with about 15 rigs crewed by about 30 astronomers. 
Visitors were gathering around each setup. 
    Near me was a mobile television truck from WCBS. Its crew was 
busily tuning it. It later beamed out to national television clear 
closeup views of the transit and interviewed several astronomers. No, 
it missed me. 
    I brought with me a couple hundred flyers for NYSkies and National 
Space Society relating to the transit. These I handed out to visitors 
as they came to my scope. Both papers had charts of the transit 
highlighting its features. 

Sunrise -- not
 ------------
    It was a very happy excited flock of people, as New Yorkers 
typicly are. Most knew about the transit from the news media or 
science interest. 
    Sunrise was completely smothered in horizon haze about seven 
degree tall all along the northeast. Above that layer was blue sky. A 
very hazy blue sky, but no clouds. As long as the horizon schmutz 
didn't grow, we will get good views of the transit once the Sun climbs 
above the haze layer.
    Some visitors were downheartened by the lack of visible Sun. I 
pointed out the sky and assured that soon enough we'll have sunlight. 
Not quite full sunlight because Venus is blocking off a bit. They took 
flyers and asked lots of questions. 
    It was a matter of hanging around and waiting. 

Brief peeks 
 --------- 
    Wow! Look! Oooo! The Sun got into a thin part of the haze layer 
and shined thru weakly. So weakly that we could inspect it by eye 
without filtration. 
    Oh, no! Oh, yes! 
    At about the 3:30 o'clock edge of the Sun was a pinprick.
    Venus! There she is. That's the effing planet!
    And then the haze thickened; the Sun winked out. We got two or 
three more quick peeks before the Sun cleared the top of the haze. 
Each was cheered and clapped by the concourse of spectators. 
    The crowd accumulated to about 250, a level maintained all thru 
the rest of the transit. The turnover was low. Every one wanted to 
stay for the whole event. I guess that the alltime total, with 
turnover, was more like 350. 

Breakout!
 -------
    By about 06h it was obvious to all that the Sun would break out 
from the top of the haze. We all watched and waited as the sky next to 

 Continued in next message.

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