The upcoming solar eclipse

http://www.venus-transit.de/ ^ | me

[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!

[CarolAnn]

Yep. I'm not really an astronomer wannabe. I'm an AMATEUR astronomer wannabe. Amateurs have been making some incredible contributions to the field lately.

I was all giddy because I got a picture of Jupiter and it's four largest moons, and you could actually tell what it was! Whoohoo! I found the Orion Nebula the other night and about fainted....

Now that's amateur. But a hell of a lot of fun.

[theFIRMbss]

>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>

Check this: "Darwin" is
an anagram for ID WARN.
And an id warning

was a plot point in
the film Forbidden Planet.
And an early scene

featured the space ship
creating an eclipse of
Antares by the

planet the space ship
was on a mission to check.
See, it all makes sense . . .

[evets]

Yeah, that's right. Good catch.

This is not only Darwinian... it's Venusian!

[Robert A Cook PE]

Yeah, it "ends" then ....

(At least as we count dates!)

But what really happens is that their "cycle" of days closes out then. (Kind of like what would happen if our Julian date calender went only up to 100,000 days. Then what would happen?

Well, the "Julian date" would need to be reset by some official function so we (and computers and spreadsheets and whatever could keep going) .... Or the world would end.

The Mayans DID periodically "reset" their Venusian calender as it got out of tune with the solar year and the solstices, (They used a complex 240 day and 365-1/4 day "double" year method of counting .... More tahn you'd like to worry about no doubt) so if Mayans had survived past the AD 900 demise of "who cares about the calender" period of priests ended, they'd probably simply reset the date and keep going.

Regardless, the Mayan "priesthood" and murderous thousands of sacrifices ended, so the Mayan calender "ending" in 2012 is superseded by history: Unless you are a "Indians are pure and innocent and all-knowing and holy and respect nature and Christopher Columbus was a supremely evil European white guy who killed everything good and holy in the America's so shame on dead white European male civilizations .... types .

[aft_lizard]

sorry I was posting for the kid who got killed doing a jackass stunt in sweden, somehow someway it ended up here.

[Robert A Cook PE]

You'll notice that the year 2012 "Mayan-calender-end-date" is EIGHT years (ONE venusian cycle) from this year's next-to-last Venusian transit cycle!

[petuniasevan]

So shoot me

Naw, 20 lashes with a wet noodle will do fine. =)

Come and visit the APOD topic threads sometime!

P.S. If you have the bucks to spend, get the 3-volume set of Burnham's Celestial Handbook. It's still one of the best in-detail guides out there.

[petuniasevan]

Oh. Never mind then.

[Blushes]

[Nurse Ratched]

I like most of the stuff rem put out on irs records.

[petuniasevan]

I AM the wife.


Hubby isn't an amateur astronomer; he treats me ok.

=)

[djf]

I am anxiously waiting for the May 17th time frame. In '70 I saw this one, truly a spectacular sight, this picture does not do it justice at all:


Comet Bennett