STELLAR OPPORTUNITY! RARE VENUS TRANSIT: One of the rarest of astronomical phenomena will occur this week from June 5 to 6 in which the planet Venus passes across the face of the sun.
Transits of planets across the face of the sun are rare occurrences, and transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century between transits. This century’s first half occurred on June 8, 2004, and its counterpart transit will occur on June 5 and 6. This unique viewing opportunity is the last time this century you will be able to see this event. The next pair of transits won’t occur until December 2117 and December 2125.
A Venus transit occurs when the planet Venus passes directly between our sun and the Earth. During this time it is visible against the sun’s disk, being seen from Earth as a small black dot moving across the face of the sun.
The transit will be visible in its entirety in the western Pacific, Hawaii, eastern Asia, eastern Australia, and the high northern latitudes, including Alaska. For those of us here in the contiguous 48 states, the transit will begin during the afternoon of Tuesday, June 5, and last until sunset. For optimal viewing times, please visit the link http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/where-when/local-transit-times/.
On the West Coast, the transit will begin around 3p.m. and last about 7 hours, but the sun will set before the transit is complete. Please remember: Never look at the sun with unprotected eyes, through regular sunglasses, or through a regular telescope as this may cause permanent eye damage or blindness. The best way to observe the transit is to project the image of the sun through a pinhole, binoculars, or telescope onto a screen.
This transit marks the first time in which there is a spacecraft orbiting Venus—the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Venus Express. The ESA will be reporting live from Spitsbergen, Norway, where the transit will be visible as it occurs under a “midnight sun.” And in the U.S., according to Space.com, a group of astronomers from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will travel to Anchorage to view the transit in conjunction with a solar physics meeting being held there.
Venus transits are of historical and scientific significance as they allow astronomers to gather data and learn more about our Solar System and beyond. In the 18th century, astronomers were able to calculate the distance to the Sun by timing the transit of Venus across the sun’s face from many different locations on Earth. Today, transit events are valuable in helping develop methods for detecting and categorizing exoplanets, those planets which orbit stars other than our Sun and which may harbor life.
English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks is believed to have been the first person to have predicted and then witness a Venus transit in 1639. In 1761, Russian astronomer Mikhail Lomonosov noticed a halo of light around Venus’ disk as it crossed the edge of the sun, deducing that Venus has an atmosphere. Today, thanks to spacecraft that have visited Venus, we know that the planet has a dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen with clouds of sulfuric acid.
In 1769, Benjamin Franklin observed a Venus transit and sponsored the publication of the transit measurements taken by Biddle and Bayley in the British publication, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. That same year, as part of the expeditions around the globe to help determine the distance to the Sun using the Venus transit, Captain James Cook, aboard the H.M.S. Endeavor, sailed to Tahiti, where an observatory was set up to view the transit at a place still known today as “Point Venus.”
With the invention of photography, the Venus transits of 1874 and 1882 became popular subjects. The U.S. Naval Observatory sent expeditions to time the transits using photographic equipment. Armed with cameras, naval astronomers were able to record the information necessary for them to measure the size of the Solar System.
On Tuesday, June 5th, take time to witness an event that no one alive today will likely ever see again. If you’re not sure about how to view the event, many astronomy clubs nationwide will be setting up solar telescopes for viewing, and NASA will be broadcasting the entire transit on its NASA TV website.
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