Posted on 06/06/2004 9:43:44 AM PDT by blam
Look out for rare space spectacle
June 06 2004 at 04:12PM
Hamburg - Tuesday's transit of Venus in front of the sun will be only the sixth such event observed by humans, and astronomers say nobody alive today has seen the phenomenon, which is barely noticeable because it only imperceptibly reduces visible sunlight.
Past transits in 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874 and 1882 were monitored from Earth. Slight differences in the start and finish time were used to roughly calculate the distance of the sun from the Earth.
The transit will be visible from all parts of Earth where the sun is in the sky between approximately 0513 and 1126 GMT, according to Nasa astronomers.
The actual contact times for any given observer may differ by seven minutes plus or minus.
Countries between Morocco and Thailand, including most of Africa, will see the transit in its entirety.
Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia will witness the beginning of the transit but the Sun will set before the event ends. Observers in western Africa, eastern North America, the Caribbean and most of South America will only see the end of the transit.
A lunar eclipse happens when the moon passes in front of the sun, as seen from the Earth. Transits are similar in concept, as they happen when one of the two planets closer to the sun than the Earth - Mercury or Venus -passes across the disc of the sun. - Sapa-dpa
Alaska is all one time zone, so we would have to travel at 6 AM here in Fairbanks, probably drive a good distance out of town, to get a view of the morning sun. Midday is about 2 PM local, so the sun would be in 4AM position. We'll have to go for elevation.
Comcur: Look at the latitude: if you're below the artic circle, you get a sunset. Fairbanks is only a few miles below the circle, but it (like Nome) is below the circle.
True, that sunset might be way around to the north-northeast very early in the morning, but it is a sunset!
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF1/196.html
Shows the shadows up there. My armillary spheres show the same thing when they are pointed at your latitude.
...No, well, yet. The water out of the tap in the city of Chesapeake two years ago was salted. After the the storm last year, the ground water was purified. (the salt water was diluted.) But, when I turn the tap on, a piece of meteor for my rock collection would make my day. I hear some of the fragments from eons ago appear in glacial melt. If you catch some when that ten ton cube falls, save me a chunk...
Is that sunrise on the 6th or the 7th?
...Do you know what the record high temperature on the North pole is, if I might change the subject from an eclipse of the sun by the planet Venus? And what is the predicted high temperature today, or for tomorrow? And can you tell it's tomorrow, yesterday or today, if you don't have GMT???
It's hot today in Fairbanks. 80. Even the mosquitoes are laying around panting like big dogs.
... thanks folks, it's been a hoot, g,nite...
...Ahhhuh. Venus shines tonight on Pruhdoe Bay. May Venus' shadow give you a spot and a moment of darkness in the land of the ever shining sun...%!)
Great. Muttly hope it gives him his X-Ray vision back, as it did during the giant Sun-Spot attack last year.
Maybe just other stuff this time, like The Giant Behemoth. What a great educational film that was.
Well...off to bed now, to await arrival of said phenomena. I only hope it doesn't subside before I wake up. Muttly hate when that happens.
Well, here it is 8 PM and the sun is still fairly high above the horizon and moving around to the north. It might be easier to observe the transit at 6 AM Tuesday than I thought.
I'll have to listen to Art Bell tonight.
It was all explained last night. Art had a most interesting interview. Everything was linked.
Classy green eyed stare at the sun ping
I have GOT to get my air conditioner fixed.
You know you spend too much time on Free Republic when......
Don't you have that reversed? Daylight time is advanced one hour.
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