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The upcoming solar eclipse
http://www.venus-transit.de/ ^
| me
Posted on 04/26/2004 11:33:40 AM PDT by djf
Coming up on June 8th, there will be a very special solar eclipse. Due to the type, it need be classified as an annular eclipse. No living human being has ever seen this type.
On June 8th, Venus, the planet that is blazongly brilliant will transit across the sun. This particular event happens rarely, the last one was in 1882, and will next be observed in the year 2012.
The last event was observed by many, including Captain Cook! Here is a drawing of an observation:
![](http://www.williams.edu/astronomy/eclipse/transits/transitOfVenus.jpg)
Only the very latest phases will be observable from the eastern half of the United States. If you decide you want to try an see it, use extreme caution!, use a sun filter, and no matter what, don't use telescopes or binoculars!
TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: astronomy; sun; venus
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1
posted on
04/26/2004 11:33:41 AM PDT
by
djf
To: djf
Wonder how George W. Bush caused this to happen?
2
posted on
04/26/2004 11:37:00 AM PDT
by
Patrick1
To: djf
To: djf
The 'Moon God' children will go beserk.... !
:o)
4
posted on
04/26/2004 11:40:12 AM PDT
by
traumer
To: djf
Darwinism at its full glory.
5
posted on
04/26/2004 11:53:22 AM PDT
by
aft_lizard
(I actually Voted for John Kerry before I voted against Him)
To: djf
Darwinism at its full glory.
6
posted on
04/26/2004 11:53:44 AM PDT
by
aft_lizard
(I actually Voted for John Kerry before I voted against Him)
To: djf
We have annular eclipses QUITE OFTEN. They are caused by the Moon's passing in front of the Sun, just like a total eclipse. Only difference is the Moon's distance from Earth makes its angular size too small to totally cover the Sun.
A transit of Venus (or Mercury) is a different story. Those are NOT referred to as eclipses as they do NOT measurably affect the amount of sunlight reaching Earth.
However, it IS true that there has not been a Venus transit since 1882.
Here is a quote from Fred Espenak at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center:
The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence. As seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible. On average, there are 13 transits of Mercury each century. In contrast, transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating each pair.
No living person has seen a transit of Venus because the most recent one occurred in 1882. This situation is about to change since Venus will transit the Sun on Tuesday, 2004 June 08. The entire event will be widely visible from the Europe, Africa and Asia as shown in the map in Figure 1 ( Low Res or High Res). Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia will witness the beginning of the transit but the Sun will set before the event ends. Similarly, observers in western Africa, eastern North America, the Caribbean and most of South America will see the end of the event since the transit will already be in progress at sunrise from those locations.
The principal events occurring during a transit are conveniently characterized by contacts, analogous to the contacts of an annular solar eclipse. The transit begins with contact I, the instant the planet's disk is externally tangent with the Sun. Shortly after contact I, the planet can be seen as a small notch along the solar limb. The entire disk of the planet is first seen at contact II when the planet is internally tangent with the Sun. During the next several hours, the silhouetted planet slowly traverses the brilliant solar disk. At contact III, the planet reaches the opposite limb and once again is internally tangent with the Sun. Finally, the transit ends at contact IV when the planet's limb is externally tangent to the Sun. Contacts I and II define the phase called ingress while contacts III and IV are known as egress. Position angles for Venus at each contact are measured counterclockwise from the north point on the Sun's disk.
Table 1
Geocentric Phases of the 2004 Transit of Venus
Event Universal Position
Time Angle
Contact I 05:13:29 116°
Contact II 05:32:55 119°
Greatest 08:19:44 166°
Contact III 11:06:33 213°
Contact IV 11:25:59 216°
7
posted on
04/26/2004 11:54:47 AM PDT
by
petuniasevan
("Has anybody seen my shaving brush?" --Occam)
To: djf
REPENT! THE END IS NEAR! REPENT!
8
posted on
04/26/2004 11:54:49 AM PDT
by
Blood of Tyrants
(Even if the government took all your earnings, you wouldn't be, in its eyes, a slave.)
To: aft_lizard
Your comment makes no sense. Zero.
Astronomy/astrophysics going on here, and you claim Darwinism is responsible. Care to elaborate, and maybe tell a seasoned amateur astronomer what could possibly offend you about a planet passing in front of the Sun?
9
posted on
04/26/2004 11:57:03 AM PDT
by
petuniasevan
("Has anybody seen my shaving brush?" --Occam)
To: petuniasevan
Maybe it's a reference to the European 'Darwin' project:
http://ast.star.rl.ac.uk/darwin/ The European Space Agency has selected the "InfraRed Space Interferometer - Darwin"
10
posted on
04/26/2004 12:05:25 PM PDT
by
evets
(God bless president George W. Bush)
To: petuniasevan
I called it an eclipse, and I called it annular.
So shoot me.
I will admit that my favorite text on astronomy refers only to lunar-solar events.
The Flammarion Book of Astronomy,
prepared under the direction of Gabrielle Camille Flammarion,
Flammarion et cie, Paris, 1880.
The 1960 Simon and Schuster hardcover cost me 40 bucks about twenty years ago.
11
posted on
04/26/2004 12:08:03 PM PDT
by
djf
To: petuniasevan
Also,
Darwin's theories of evolution, involved studies of life,
in the islands of the Galapagos region, which were visited
by Captain Cook, who observed the Venus transit.</stream>
12
posted on
04/26/2004 12:09:47 PM PDT
by
evets
(God bless president George W. Bush)
To: djf; maxwell; Cyber Liberty; Eala; xsmommy; Alamo-Girl; sweetliberty; dubyaismypresident; ...
Hmmmmn.
The fiery mounds (and mountains) of Venus will (partially) eclipse the son, eh?
(Sounds like what the democrats want to happen in November's election so Hillary can begin her 2008 campaign....)
13
posted on
04/26/2004 12:09:56 PM PDT
by
Robert A Cook PE
(I can only donate monthly ... But Kerry's ABBCNNBCBS press corpse lies every day.)
To: Robert A. Cook, PE
I just thought after last years Mars approach, the three comets that are right now in the inner solar system, and the fact that this event usually happens only every few hundred years, people might like to know.
14
posted on
04/26/2004 12:17:32 PM PDT
by
djf
To: djf
Captain Cook was killed in 1779. There were two transits of Venus in the 19th century.
To: Robert A. Cook, PE
click the pic
16
posted on
04/26/2004 12:19:04 PM PDT
by
evets
(God bless president George W. Bush)
To: djf
Certainly!
And I figured I'd pull your leg a bit. 8<)
Since it is such an opun and shut case of circular logic.
But, what goes around, comes around.....
17
posted on
04/26/2004 12:21:38 PM PDT
by
Robert A Cook PE
(I can only donate monthly ... But Kerry's ABBCNNBCBS press corpse lies every day.)
To: evets
Today, Vassar College would be more interested in lookin' for photo's of Venus under any Bush they could lay hands on ....
Several VAssar students, in fact, were very specific about that fact during the abortion death-rights march in DC this weekend.
18
posted on
04/26/2004 12:23:54 PM PDT
by
Robert A Cook PE
(I can only donate monthly ... But Kerry's ABBCNNBCBS press corpse lies every day.)
To: Verginius Rufus
Here's an undated photo of Cook viewing the transit of Venus.
19
posted on
04/26/2004 12:24:20 PM PDT
by
evets
(God bless president George W. Bush)
To: Robert A. Cook, PE
Well, all the roosters will crow, the sunlight will be diminished by what? .0000000904 percent or so?
Sales of suglasses will plummet.
;-)
Invest in sun tanning booths NOW!
20
posted on
04/26/2004 12:25:07 PM PDT
by
djf
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