Transit of Venus

[Ardbeg... innit]

A rare astronomical event tomorrow afternoon and evening here in North America (Wednesday morning in Europe). The planet Venus will cross the face of the sun. I will have the telescope out with the sun filter on. I invite you all to drop by. If a few of you cannot (Im just guessing here) you can watch it SAFELY on your own with a few hints from this Link.

And dont try that "Ill watch it next time" excuse. The next transit of Venus across the Sun will take place in 2117 (or for Jake, that's 2,117)

[Chicago Jake]

As I posted at FB, what's the point of this? The sun will be behind Venus, right? It will be the worst case of backlighting in the history of the universe. You wouldn't be able to see a thing other than a small round silhouette.

And for the record, it's FIVE digit numbers (and up) that need a comma, not four digit numbers. Four digits I can pretty much parse without help.

[Ardbeg... innit]

... and the Grand Canyon is just a big hole in the ground

[Ron]

Venus transits are historically of great scientific importance as they were used to gain the first realistic estimates of the size of the Solar System. Observations of the 1639 transit, combined with the principle of parallax, provided an estimate of the distance between the Sun and the Earth that was more accurate than any other up to that time. In addition, the June 2012 transit will provide scientists with a number of other research opportunities, particularly in the refinement of techniques to be used in the search for exoplanets.

Bleh, nothing to see here!

[Ardbeg... innit]

From my FB page, I regard this as much a part of the human experience as anything else..

Observing the events in the sky is about as primal a human activity that there is. Weve been doing it for thousands, tens of thousands of years. With technology, it would be easy to watch the event on the internet, and with better quality than what I will see in my telescope (weather permitting, that I see anything at all).

It is the physical act that ties us with the generations long past. The questions of what is happening has been answered, but that makes the spectral no less inspiring. I have seen the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, the mountains and craters of the moon, sunspots, nebulae and comets through my telescope. None of which could match the quality of images available online. But none of those images make me FEEL closer to the object than seeing it first hand "live".

I can watch baseball on TV, or experience at a ballpark. I can enjoy photos of a tropical beach, or I can feel the water, sand, and sun. I can look down at a picture of a planet or star placed in front of me, or do as countless generations past have done, and look up.

[Chicago Jake]

Again, as I said at FB, awesome answer.

[♥ COVID-19♥]

Yup, there's an app for that ...

www.transitofvenus.org/education/video-new-media/217-phone-app

[Chicago Jake]

You can watch it safely here:

events.slooh.com/