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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:



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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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
Venus envy?

They should protesting against sperm!

21 posted on 04/26/2004 12:28:20 PM PDT by evets (God bless president George W. Bush)
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To: evets
Should that picture be accurate, he was killed being totally blind in the left eye!!!
22 posted on 04/26/2004 12:31:16 PM PDT by ExSES
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To: djf
The Flammarion Book of Astronomy

I have that book!!! My parents got it when I was about 5 years old, and I took it over as my first 'real book'. It still has my name in it written when I could barely write anything other than my name. Does your's have the fold out 'Planispheres' of the norththern and southern hemispheres in the back?

23 posted on 04/26/2004 12:33:55 PM PDT by spodefly (A 7mm intellect in a .284 caliber world, or something.)
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Comment #24 Removed by Moderator

To: spodefly
Yes, indeed. My copy is in perfect condition. Sometimes, I lament never having children. Then, I regain my senses.
25 posted on 04/26/2004 12:37:35 PM PDT by djf
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To: evets
Everytime there is some sort of "eclipse," there are people who will caution the rest of us not to look directly at the sun so that we do not harm our eyesight. Yet I wonder if that is possible. Has there ever been a recorded incidence of somebody "going blind" on account of viewing an eclipse? I would think that the "blink relex" would prevent blinding by the sun. You would have to be pretty determined (and a bit maschochistic) to peer directly into the sun long enough to hurt your eyes.

Anyway, I'm not saying to go ahead and view the eclipse without the sun filters or the silly hole in the window screen trick, but I do wonder if these fears are fully warranted.

As for myself, I've never seen a solar eclipse. I always get cheated out of it. Either it is a cloudy day or I was otherwise occupied when one happens to come along. I think we had a partial solar eclipse a couple of Christmases ago, but I got so wrapped up in Christmas festivities that I forgot all about it until it was too late (or maybe I was too heavy in the egg nog to care).

26 posted on 04/26/2004 12:38:12 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (I don't own this gas-guzzling SUV - my wife does!)
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To: SamAdams76
LAND'S END, England (Reuters) - An American boy partially blinded by an eclipse pleaded Monday with British eclipse-watchers: ``Please don't ever look directly at the sun.''

For 12-year-old David Berger-Jones, his life will never be the same since he caught a glimpse of an eclipse through a telescope at a planetarium in his home town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Flown to Britain by the Fight for Sight charity to publicize the dangers of eclipse-watching, he admitted that he hoped for bad weather over Wednesday's total eclipse of the sun.

``I wish for clouds so people won't get hurt,'' he told Reuters.

His mother Darcy said: ``Coming down on the train, David kept looking at all the kids and saying that he did hope their eyes wouldn't get burned.''

David visited his local planetarium last year to view an eclipse through telescopes and special goggles. He was told they were safe and supervised.

The damage took just seconds. There was no pain but within days, he told his mother about trouble in his left eye.

The sun's radiation had burned a hole in his retina. It was as if a cigarette had stabbed him in the eye.

There is no known treatment for solar retinopathy and the blind spot will remain in David's eye for the rest of his life.

Now he has to wear special goggles when playing his beloved baseball.

``I just hate it when other kids make fun of me, which they do,'' he said.

Asked what he could now see with his left eye, he said: ''There is a black spot covering where your nose is and the rest all around is a blur.''

Pleading to the millions of people who may be tempted to gaze unprotected at the heavens Wednesday, he said: ``Don't ever, ever look directly at the sun even if this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.''

His advice: Turn your back to the sun and use a pin-hole card to project indirect images of the sun onto another card.

``I would keep young children inside,'' his mother said. ''You won't be able to stop them looking up. Watch it on TV instead.''

After Britain's last eclipse in 1927, at least 20 people went blind. Doctors fear that figure could soar this time -- despite all the publicity mounted by the government in a public safety campaign.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/eclipse3_809_wg.html
27 posted on 04/26/2004 12:43:13 PM PDT by evets (God bless president George W. Bush)
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To: SamAdams76
Welding (full-face) screen, with a self-powered (solar-activated) UV-sensing panel!

http://store.cyberweld.com/jaeqcmaaudal.html

'Course, I'm gonna hafta get mine cleaned up some, replace the plexiglass scratch cover lens, and wipe the sweat and smears off of the cover ...
28 posted on 04/26/2004 12:43:21 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly ... But Kerry's ABBCNNBCBS press corpse lies every day.)
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Comment #29 Removed by Moderator

To: Robert A. Cook, PE
Thanks for the ping!
30 posted on 04/26/2004 12:50:48 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: djf
I subscribe to Sky & Telescope, and they had a real interesting article about the "transit" of Venus. Last time it happened, it was a big deal. Astronomers were still trying to figure the distance of an astronomical unit, and if they could determine the exact beginning and end of the transit, somehow that would give them the measurment they need. (I just read the articles. That doesn't mean I understand everything in them.)

Scientists were in every remote corner of the world that the transit was visible just to be sure SOMEONE got the measurements. Turns out all the measurments differed. Anyway, scientists are expected to yawn at the transit this time, but astronomer wanabees (like me) are excited about it. Actually I'm not real excited about it, because I'm a moon and planets kinda gal. But, you know what I mean.

31 posted on 04/26/2004 12:57:37 PM PDT by CarolAnn
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To: CarolAnn
Venus has been stupendous in the early evening sky of late.

Hint: if you go out right after sunset, find a place where you can see Venus with something in the foreground, like a telephone pole. Pay attention to the spot in the sky where venus is.
Do this about three evenings in a row, closer and closer to sunset each time.

Within about four days, you will be able to go out before sunset, and see Venus in the daylight.

I think it's about -1.5 magnitude now, easily visible in daylight, but you have to know exactly where to look.
32 posted on 04/26/2004 1:05:43 PM PDT by djf
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
Please add me to your ping list. Thanks.
33 posted on 04/26/2004 1:09:13 PM PDT by GOPJ (NFL Owners: Grown men don't watch hollywood peep shows with wives and children.)
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To: CarolAnn
SOME OF THOSE DIFFERENCES (FOR THE STRONGER GRAVITATIONALLY-INFLUENCED TRANSIT OF MERCURY ACROSS THE SUN IN 1919 (AND TWICE LATER) WERE FUNDEMENTAL IN VERIFYING Einstein's CURVED SPACE THEORIES!)

(Now that I've turned off the d**m cap's key ...)

For Venus, the transits give an opportunity to measure the parallax (the very, very small dist across a triangle from us (on earth) to the sun's left and right sides) gives an opportunity to confirm Venus' orbit, distances, the gravitational influence of the sun on light, etc.

Venus is much further from the sun that Mercury is, and thus is easier to measure using conventional means, but this a special time for astronomers and those who want to check Venus's gasses (density, depth, composition, etc.) as its atmosphere (molecules ) pass in font of the sun. gravitational influence on the signal is much less for Venus than it is for Mercury, for example.

Even though we've orbited Venus with satellites, and have bounced radar waves off it from earth, more data can come these occults than you may think. And we really do know less than you'd expect about Venus.

34 posted on 04/26/2004 1:10:38 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly ... But Kerry's ABBCNNBCBS press corpse lies every day.)
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To: djf
I have a telescope, and I've been watching Venus for several weeks now. It's so bright that I have to use a filter on my eyepiece. What's incredible to me is that as bright as it is, it's only twentysome percent lit.

Mostly, I've been trying to get some good pictures of Jupiter. I'm getting better, but I'm a real beginner.

35 posted on 04/26/2004 1:11:52 PM PDT by CarolAnn
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
Yeah... What you said.;)
36 posted on 04/26/2004 1:13:38 PM PDT by CarolAnn
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To: djf
These 8 day periods (when Venus is nearly invisible because it is so close to the sun) were special days to the Mayan priests.... Aztecs picked up (or independently decided to use similar calenders!) the same periodic calenders based in part on Venus' appearance and disappearance through years as it rotated around the sun.

'Course, they didn't know WHY it appeared and disappeared on different sides of the sun, and in different times of day, but they worshiped its re-appearances.

Be glad they aren't killing thousands of prisoners any more in Aztec and Mayan sacrifices any more!
37 posted on 04/26/2004 1:15:19 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly ... But Kerry's ABBCNNBCBS press corpse lies every day.)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
Izzat why the Mayan calendar ends in 2012????

I gotta go and put on my tin-foil hat!
38 posted on 04/26/2004 1:18:01 PM PDT by djf
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To: CarolAnn
I know what you are talking about. I am thinking of changing my tag line to World's Worst Amateur Astronomer.
39 posted on 04/26/2004 1:21:23 PM PDT by nomorelurker (wetraginhell)
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To: djf
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!

Actually, binoculars or a telescope are just fine, provided you do the following:

Take a sheet of white paper. Point the binoculars or telescope at the sun, so that the light from the eyepiece shines on the paper. Focus the instrument so that the spot looks sharp.

Or, of course, you could do the old pinhole viewer -- take a piece of aluminum foil and cover one end of a toilet paper or paper towel tube. Poke one or more holes in the foil. To view, point foil end at sun, and let light freom the pinhole focus on a piece of paper. You can make a fancier viewer using an old shoe box, and use a sheet of wax paper as a screen on the other end of the box.

40 posted on 04/26/2004 1:23:33 PM PDT by r9etb
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