what is a transit of venus? the planet venus passes directly between the sun and earth tiny venus...

THE TRANSIT OF VENUS

WHAT IS A TRANSIT OF VENUS?• The planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth

• Tiny Venus tracks across the face of our giant Sun

• Pairs of transits occur every 105.5 years to 121.5 years

• Last transits of Venus:

• June 5, 2012

• June 8, 2004

• Next transits of Venus:

• Dec 10-11, 2117

• Dec 2125

WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE

HOW DOES A TRANSIT WORK?• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehHY9fTrb7Q

SOME HISTORY• 1627 - Johannes Kepler became the first person to predict a transit of Venus, by

predicting the 1631 event (not very accurately)

• 1639 – first scientific observation by Jeremiah Horrocks in England using a telescope projecting an image of the Sun onto a piece of paper

• 1761 and 1769 – scientists of the day proposed to use solar parallax to calculate the Astronomical Unit

• 1761 – scientists observed from: Siberia, Norway, Newfoundland, Madagascar & South Africa

• 1769 – scientists observed from: Hudson Bay, Baja California, Tahiti, Norway & from several locations in Russia

• 1874 & 1882 – scientists had accurately calculated the Astronomical Unit – 149.59 M kms

POINT VENUS, TAHITI – JAMES COOK (1769)

PLANNING FOR 2012

WEATHER – TO TRAVEL…OR NOT• We were having the worst weather for years in early June

• Do I run or do I stay?

• Drive the motor home to Redding, CA

• Fly to Las Vegas

• Fly to Yellowknife

• Fly to Maui

• Forget it…I’m staying!

EQUIPMENT – BINOCULARS & SOLAR FILTERS

EQUIPMENT –SOLAR FILTER GLASSES

EQUIPMENT – TELESCOPE & SOLAR FILTER

PHOTOS – SOLAR FILTER & TELEPHOTO LENS

PREPARATION FOR THE BIG DAY

THE START – FIRST CONTACT – 3:09:38PM

MID-POINT BETWEEN CONTACT I & II – 3:10:47PM

SECOND CONTACT – 3:27:34PM

MID POINT - GREATEST TRANSIT - 5:29:36PM

THREE QUARTER POINT - 8:00PM

LAST GLIMPSE OF VENUS TRANSITING THE SUN - 8:37PM

LOST IN THE TREES & CLOUDS

JUST ABOVE THE TREES

TRACKING ACROSS THE SUN

NASA’S SOLAR DYNAMIC OBSERVATORY• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9rM8ChTjY

WHAT’S NEXT?

• Transit of Mercury in May 2016

• Entire transit visible in eastern North America and Western Europe & Africa

• Partially visible in western North America, Africa, Middle East, Russia, parts of Asia

TRANSIT OF MERCURY – NOV 8, 2006

RESOURCES

• eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov – click on Transit of Venus of 2012

• www.transitofvenus.org

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus

• www.nasa.gov/sdo - NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

• victoria.rasc.ca – click on Astronomy Day for copies of today’s presentations