Venus Transit on June 8th

Scruff

An extremely rare astronomical event will be taking place on June 8th. For 6 hours, starting at 6:19am Venus will appear as a small black disk as it pass across the face of the sun. hopefully it'll be a clear summer's day for it!

from todays Irish independent

The next black disc to arrive will be the 6.19am Venus transit to the Sun

AN astronomical event so rare that no person alive today has witnessed it will be visible in the skies above Ireland next month when Venus moves across the face of the Sun.

At 6.19am on Tuesday, June 8, the planet will appear as a small black disc against the Sun as it makes its first "transit" since December 6, 1882.

For the next six hours the Earth's nearest planetary neighbour will cut a slow left-to-right diagonal path across the Sun before disappearing at 12.24pm.

Given good weather, the entire phenomenon will be observable from this country - the first time it can be seen from here since 1283, when no one knew to watch for it. Another transit will occur on June 6, 2012, but will not be seen by skywatchers from Ireland, who must wait until 2247 for another.

Transits are so rare that only five have been observed, and they have led to some of the most important discoveries in astronomy and geography.

The distance between the Sun and the Earth, 93 million miles, was first calculated with approximate accuracy during an 18th century transit, and Captain James Cook reached Australia and New Zealand when dispatched to the South Pacific to observe the transit of 1769.

This time, scientists plan to test technology intended to find Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars.

When such "exosolar" planets make transits across parent stars, the event produces a dip in the brightness of that star's light, as seen from Earth. On June 8, astronomers will use instruments for measuring this effect to discover whether Venus's transit affects the Sun's brightness, as predicted.

Similar equipment will be launched on the French Corot probe next year, on Nasa's Kepler mission in 2007, and possibly on the European Space Agency's Eddington spacecraft, the launch of which has been postponed indefinitely because of a shortage of funds.

The transit will help scientists to study the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona. All the instruments on the Soho solar observatory satellite are to be aligned with the black edge of Venus as it crosses the Sun, providing temperature data of unprecedented accuracy.

As with a solar eclipse, scientists have warned people not to look at the Sun during the transit, but to use eclipse viewing glasses or project the image of the Sun on to a screen using a small telescope.

Venus travels between the Earth and the Sun approximately once every 18 months, but this rarely produces a transit as the orbits of both planets are generally at an angle.

The telescope's invention in 1608 made the phenomenon predictable and observable. The event of 1631, however, forecast by Johannes Kepler, was not visible from Europe and so was missed by astronomers.

Mark Henderson

more info here

albertw

The Irish node also has created www.venustransit.ie

Dr. Ian Elliott and Dr. Tom Ray were on the radio on tuesday for half an hour about it also.

So if any of you are in clubs that are holding events plase let us know so the site can be updated. Also please pm me if you need more information for the media etc.

More discussion/announcements at http://www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=665

Cheers,
~Al
--
On behalf of the Irish Steering Committee vt-2004

p.s. ASTRONOMICAL not ASTROLOGICAL!

mike65

Bah! You beat me too it!

Mike.

Scruff

Originally posted by albertw
p.s. ASTRONOMICAL not ASTROLOGICAL!

sorry was listening to my horoscope while typing*





*this may in fact be an outright lie

Sev

Well, I wouldnt be surprised if this transit of venus has significant astrological meaning too.

po0k

First part of the TV-film released:
http://www.vt-2004.org/vt-news.html
http://www.vt-2004.org/Media/

Seanie M

Hi,

likewise people, as this is a rare event, its a good time for any of you in astronomical societies or clubs to make a move.

I recognise Albert here (Sean Morris here!), and he can vouch for the hard work that is being done by the Venus Transit steering committee to promote this as best as possible. I am sorry I don't recognise other names in the thread, and I would like to know other people here. Anyone here involved in any Astronomy clubs/societies?

I am secretary of Tullamore Astronomical Society myself...(www.tullamoreastronomy.com)

By the way, as Albert highlighted already, a large amateur astronomical community already exists at www.irishastronomy.org (server is down today Tuesday though). Its basically just like these forums, where independent astronomical clubs and societies are affiliated with each other, while remaining unique and independent from each other. Beats Astronomy Ireland hands down! :P


Seanie.

albertw

Originally posted by Seanie M
www.irishastronomy.org (server is down today Tuesday though).

Hosting company are complete muppets. Should be back tomorrow. Bart is workingon resolving this, permanently.

Pissing me off since I have some transit stuff to send off, and I cant very well send it with a URL that doesn't resolve.

~Al

Seanie M

Originally posted by albertw
I have some transit stuff to send off, and I cant very well send it with a URL that doesn't resolve.

~Al

There is a second Irish Astronomy forum site (you know it Al) where you can post anything astronomical. Its very similar to irish astronomy dot org, but it doesn't represent any one organisation... if in doubt, check out www.irishastronomy.com

Cheers,

Seanie.

albertw

Incompetent muppet hosting company now have DNS records back up, but havent restored the data for irishastronomy.org.

Also to continue the jynx the IAS pages have had to move due to other muppetry, they are now at www.irishastrosoc.org (because I couldn't think of a catchier URL!)

The clubs& societies and transit watches page on the venustransit.ie site will be updated with the correct info once all these problems are sorted.

Other musings from Terry:
---
Hi all,

1. Members in the Munster area may be interested in this lecture:
"40 years of Cosmic Background Radiation"
Professor Gerard T. Wrixon, President University College Cork, invites you to attend a lecture by Dr. Robert W. Wilson, Noble Laureate, of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

"Forty Years of Cosmic Background Radiation"

as part of The President's Distinguished Guest Lecture Series, at 7.00pm, Thursday 3 June 2004, in Boole Lecture Theatre 3, University College Cork

RSVP: 5.00pm Tuesday 1 June 2004. Email: PresidentsLectureSeries@ucc.ie
Tel: The Office of Marketing & Communications, University College Cork, 021 490 2413

2. The ISS is currently making a nice series of evening passes, often passing close to, and outshining, Jupiter! Check <www.heavens-above.com> for details.

3. Comet NEAT is now well up in a reasonably dark sky, at least for those of you in the more southern parts of the island! I had some excellent views of it from rural Berkshire recently, at a nice latitude of under 52 degrees. It has a reasonable tail, at least 4 degrees long, in 15 x 70 binocs. No structure was visible in the head, even with a 14-inch reflector. But it's fading all the time, (around mag 4.5 now) so look before it gets any fainter, and before the waxing Moon starts to interfere. See April STARDUST for charts and details.

4. Finally, have you made your plans for the Transit of Venus (8 June 2004, 6:19am - 12:24pm) yet? If not, hurry up - it's less than 3 weeks away!
See: www.vt-2004.org) , and www.venustransit.ie .

Clear Skies,

Terry Moseley

---
Cheers,
~Al

Seanie M

by the way Al, did you get the TAS details for renewal?

I got all your leaflets and posters for the Transit and ILPAC, thanks.

Seanie.

keu

Well, I wouldnt be surprised if this transit of venus has significant astrological meaning too.

profoundly

mike65

SCIENTIFIC DOCUMENTARY: Transit of Venus: Stardate
Channel: BBC 2 Northern Ireland (Digital) 106
Date: Tuesday 8th June 2004
Time: 23:20 to 00:20 (starting in 10 days)
Duration: 1 hour.
Adam Hart-Davis is at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, reporting on the day's astronomical event when Venus passes over the face of the Sun. Also includes the results of the Open University's attempt to get viewers nationwide to time the Transit and make an accurate measurement of the Astronomical Unit, the distance from Earth to the Sun.

Mike.

albertw

Hi folks,

This is the press release sent out by the Irish Node of the ESO vt-2004.org project. Enjoy the transit! Safley!!

Cheers,
~Al


On Tuesday, 8th June 2004, from 6.20am to 12.24pm, we can witness a very rare astronomical event when the planet Venus crosses in front of the Sun. Venus will appear as a circular black dot on the bright disk of the Sun. This Transit of Venus will be visible to millions in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

In Dublin, astronomers from the South Dublin Astronomical Society and the Irish Astronomical Society will be gathering from 6am at Sandymount Tower to observe the transit with a variety of special telescopes. A telescope equipped with a hydrogen-alpha filter will show detailed structure on the Sun’s surface. Members of the public are invited to take part in this historic event.

Only five transits of Venus have ever been witnessed, the first in 1639 and the last in 1882. The 1769 transit was observed on Tahiti by Captain James Cook, then an unknown young lieutenant. Cook later explored the coasts of New Zealand and claimed Eastern Australia for Britain.

Previous transits were used to estimate the Astronomical Unit (the distance from the Earth to the Sun). Knowledge of the value of the Astronomical Unit is the first step in estimating the distances to the stars and to distant galaxies. Nowadays, thanks to radar, the value of the Astronomical Unit is known to great accuracy (149.597,870 km!), so there is no need for astronomers to observe transits. However, the event demonstrates how transits can help astronomers find planets circling distant stars. Someday we may even be able to search for life on these exoplanets.

The European Southern Observatory is co-ordinating activities across Europe through the website www.vt-2004.org. Individuals and groups are being encouraged to re-enact the historic observations by timing the transit to an accuracy of one second, thus allowing each observer to estimate the value of the Astronomical Unit. On the day of the Transit, the ESO website will carry real time images from around the world and results of the observations.

For up-to-the-minute discussions of the Transit, Irish Astronomers can be contacted at the Irish Amateur Astronomy website www.IrishAstronomy.org, where there is a free message board, a photo gallery, and free magazines to download. Anyone interested in the event or in astronomy in general is invited to join the discussion board on this website.

SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS and details of other events are available at www.venustransit.ie and at www.vt-2004.org.

Scruff

Has anyone managed to see this? Its too overcast here where i am on Dublin's South Coast.

Sleipnir

yeah too cloudy here....:(

Redshift

If anyone has Sky News active they have a live feed of the event.

Seanie M

There were some breaks down my way near Tullamore. I keep in touch with what goes on at www.irishastronomy.org.

Pictures will be available later at www.tullamreastronomy.com

Cheers,

Seanie.

Calibos

Got to see it in Bray about 11:30. Lucky break in the clouds.....well the thick cloud broke but it was still a bit hazy. Anyway couldn't use binoculars because I have no filters and the white card projection malarky seems to be as pointless as watching the event in-directly on the telly. I looked naked eye through about 10 film negatives overlapped. it was about a venus width from the bottom right edge of the sun. I'm assuming thats what I saw and wasn't looking at a sunspot?????



.........anyone know a good eye surgeon???



Only joking...Started with more negatives than I needed(ie opaque) and eliminated them one by one till I got to the amount that gave me a decent but still safe/dim view. I'm not stupid ya know!!!:D


waiting for people to tell me I'm stupid anyway and lucky not to be blind.....:D

PunyHuman

http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/venustransit/08jun04o/Maruska1.jpg

Most people have probably seen it though. Shame it's in B&W as well.