Transit of Venus across the Disk of the Sun
If it is clear we will observe it from around 5PM until sunset from
the
roof of the Parking Garage
at
Fenton and King Street on Tuesday,
5 June 2012. If it is
hopelessly
cloudy and predicted to continue that way well past the event then
we
will
have a show in the planetarium watching web cams of this
event.
The real thing is better!
The reason why transits of Venus across the disk of the sun are
important, aside from the spectacle and their rarity, is that is how
we
know that we are 8.3 light minutes (149 million kilometers, 93
million
miles) away from the sun. By measuring the distance on the
earth
between two observers and the small angular difference between the
two
observers transit of Venus; we can scale up the earth distance
to
give us the earth to Venus distance and from that the earth to the
sun
distance of 1 AU (Astronomical Unit). All
other distances to planets, stars, and galaxies are based upon this
first close distance in our Solar System the AU. Before the AU
was determined in terms of some known value on the earth we could
not
say how far the planets or stars or galaxies were away.
All
distances off of the earth are based upon our determination of the
AU, and this is only our 7 opportunity to use this method with
the transit of Venus across the disk of the Sun. Come join us
for
this scientifically historical event. You can not afford
to
wait until 2117.
Exciting Transit
of Venus vidoes.
We had good luck on June
8,
2004 in the morning when we saw this event with around 500
people on the roof of the parking garage.
For transit visibility world wide go to this image.
Montgomery
College's
Planetarium
home page
Last updated Wednesday, 1:20PM 3123/20012 by Dr. Harold
Williams