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Don’t wait until 2012—see the transit of Venus now!
May 26, 2004 | |||||
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KOKOMO, Ind.—Early on the morning of Tuesday, June 8, a twice-in-a-lifetime opportunity awaits at the IU Kokomo Observatory. Clear skies permitting, visitors will be able to view the transit of Venus through the observatory telescope, starting shortly after sunrise at 5:14 a.m. and continuing until approximately 6:30 a.m. Admission is free. A transit is the passage of a planet across the face of the Sun. As seen from Kokomo on June 8, Venus will appear as a small black circle—about 1/32nd the diameter of the Sun—climbing up the lower-right side of the fiery ball. “It’s sort of a mini-eclipse,” said Rick Steldt, Ph.D., observatory director. The last transit occurred in 1882. Hence, “No one alive today has ever seen a transit of Venus,” said Steldt, who is an associate professor of physics for IU Kokomo. The next transit of Venus will occur on June 6, 2012. The following one won’t happen until the twenty-second century, on December 11, 2117. To accommodate the most visitors for this year’s transit viewing, Steldt plans two approaches to showing the planet’s trek across the sun’s face. “If there is not a big demand, we will allow individuals to look at the transit through the observatory telescope,” he said. If a long line of viewers starts forming, Steldt will attach a video eyepiece to the telescope and transmit the image seen through the telescope to a television monitor outside of the observatory. “We don’t want anyone to come to the observatory and not be able to see the transit,” he said. He also noted that the view of the transit from the observatory will be temporarily obscured until the sun rises above surrounding treetops. But, he believes that the observatory still offers a great and safe view. “Looking directly at the sun at any time can cause permanent damage to the eyes,” he said. “We’ll have solar filters on all the telescopes at the observatory, so you can see the transit safely here.” The Scientific Value of Transit Watching As early as the 17th century, astronomers theorized that by observing a transit of Venus from widely separated places on Earth and comparing the paths taken by Venus, they could calculate the distance between the two planets and, subsequently, between the Earth and the Sun. An article in the June 2004 Astronomy magazine notes that having an accurate measurement of these distances “not only would set the distance scale for the solar system, but it also held the more down-to-earth promise of improving celestial tables needed for maritime navigation.” The practical, economic value of this knowledge lead governments to sponsor scientific expeditions around the globe to document transits of Venus. Lt. James Cook commanded such an expedition for the British Royal Navy in 1769, observing the transit from Tahiti, and then going on to “discover” New Zealand and Australia. Today, the Astronomy article states, astronomers are finding value in measuring transits occurring in two other solar systems. As planets pass in front of the stars that are those systems’ “suns,” the small decrease in light from the stars suggests how closely the mass and density of those planets match that of Earth. Gathering such data, the article said, “is at the forefront of our quest to identify and explore worlds beyond the solar system.”
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