Wednesday morning the 6th of June was a unique
one. A rare cosmic event was occurring, we in Gaza were lucky to have the opportunity to
watch the Venus Transit and enjoy the beauty of the event via Dr.Suleiman
Baraka’s Solar Filtered Telescope.
Earlier in April I met Dr.Suleiman on twitter and he told me
about the Venus Transit and said that he will be preparing a sky seeing event
if his trip to France
was cancelled and that I was more than welcomed to attend. Guess how excited I
was at that moment I felt like I couldn’t breathe!. Now I didn’t want to wish
that his trip gets cancelled for my own selfish reasons, I just kept dreaming
about the day.
When the details of the event’s location were disclosed and I
found out that it’s really happening I was smiling all day that I didn’t feel
my facial muscles aching till late at night.
Now I understand why people get excited about rock concerts.
Wake up, Venus is visiting!
The night before the event I was supposed to ‘’get some rest’’
but I tried to sleep countless times and failed. I kept following the progress
of the transit online and when it was 5 AM I woke my mother and my sister to
get ready because the location of the event is an hour away from where I live. I’ve
already made plans with a taxi driver to come pick us up at 5:30 AM. Everything
and everyone were set.
We headed to the event and again I was smiling all the way
and wasn’t able to hear anything my mother was saying. Apparently she was
making fun of the fact that we’re up this early to see Venus. We arrived at the
location and people were there already and the telescopes
were installed and guess what! Dr.Suleiman Baraka was there moving gracefully
between the audience and talking to everyone and making sure everyone got their
chance to watch.
 |
| Dr.Suleiman adjusting the telescope. |
I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that the highlight of
the event wasn’t Venus passing between the sun and the earth, but more it was
Dr.Suleiman with his exquisite knowledge that he was more than happy to share. He
told us about the myths surrounding Venus, it’s history and linked all of that
to Ayat from holy Quran. It was amusing listening to him speak, he is one of a
kind!
 |
| Dr.Baraka explaining to the audience what are sun spots! |
I kept following the progress of the transit via the
telescope and by the naked eye and every time I saw it, it electrified me. I
needed few minutes to regain my breathing and heart rhythem back to normal after
every observation.
Dr.Suleiman asked me ‘’Mabsoota ya Basma?’’ I replied: ‘’Mabsoota
is an understatement sir, I’m ecstatic!’’ He smiled and thanked me for coming.
There was a good amount of media coverage for the event. I
did two TV interviews for it. The interviewer asked me what most people ask when they first know that I'm a laboratory medicine student / space geek.
''Why was it important for you to be here''
I replied: ''Astronomers look at the universe around us through their telescopes, we laboratory medicine students look at the universe within us through our microscopes, it's not that different. We are the universe.''
And at 7:30 AM Gaza said
goodbye to Venus declaring the end of one of my best mornings in Gaza .
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