What was that flash? What was that boom?

Seattle Times ^ | June 3, 2004 | Seattle Times

[Truth666]

Rattled outdoor furniture, frightened cats. We heard reports from several readers about the mysterious booms and flashes of light early this morning over Puget Sound:
"I was watching late night TV when at exactly 2:42 p.m. I saw the sky light up like a nuclear bomb had exploded. The entire sky and my whole yard glowed a luminous red color. I went outside to investigate and could hear a loud rumbling noise."

[rwfromkansas]

Venus is moving in on the left side of the screen in prep for the transit on the 8th.

[ladyinred]

Oh NO! Not another "Weather Balloon" was it?

[Truth666]

Sorry, it was addressed to "all".
That is Venus entering SOHO - imagine that SOHO had been in place for the last 120 years - longer than any person alive in this planet. It would be now, just a few minutes before, that Venus would have appeared plunging into the sun for the first time.

[kenth]

haha... that's just what I was thinking.

[kenth]

Your prostate makes loud booming sounds that wake you? I would get that checked.

[Iberian]

Yeahh, I like the way you think!!.

[Iberian]

Iran or syria would work, our soldiers are still in Iraq.

[MeekOneGOP]

SOME of you people need to learn to read

Take a Chill Pill, Friend. Get a little laid back.

[Iberian]

Well thahh !! , what kind of light show would that be??, You will never see a july 4th fireworks show at noon.

I sort of started one indoors once and it was still too light out.

[Iberian]

Shih-Tzu, what kind of bird is that.

[MeekOneGOP]

Oh, okay. Sorry if I misunderstood.

I'm still not sure I understand all that, but that's ok.

I think. :^D

[BenLurkin]

The orbit of Venus is between that of Earth and the SUn. TYhat is why it crosses over teh Sun's disk when viewed from earth.

This illustrates the relative positions of the planets:

This is just kind acool. Obviously the planets are not all jumbled up like this:

[BenLurkin]

Well thank goodness - rush hour is bad enough as is.

Now having said that, I did see a spectacular meteor one night driving home from work long after sunset.

Fortunately there wasn't enough traffic to result in any delays.

[BenLurkin]

I think it's a kind of massage.

[BenLurkin]

Oops, forgot the old spell checker:

The orbit of Venus is between that of Earth and the Sun. That is why it crosses over the Sun's disk when viewed from earth.

[toomanygrasshoppers]

LOL OK Guys, point well taken. :>)

[lonevoice]

In Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, about 260 miles to the east, Dick Haugen said he was driving to work at KVMI Radio when he saw a flash that he took to be lightning about 2:40 a.m. - then learned there were no lightning storms anywhere in the region.

Ping to read #14. Here's the light that flooded your bedroom and woke you up about 2:30 this morning. :-)

[Quix]

Haven't seen that one before.

Is it a real book and have you read it?

[DainBramage]

Its a real book but I haven't read it.

[Truth666]

Compare the sun flares in the last frame (here) before Venus enters the scene ...

with that first frame with Venus totally on stage.