Venus Transit Finished 220
KjetilK writes "Venus is just about to cross the solar disc.
Direct from the control room in the Frogner Park in Oslo, I'm pleased to inform you that we have a great webcast, and as far as we know, it is the only webcast that still stands upright... Slashdotters, do your worst! ;-) A Venus transit is one of the most unique astronomical events in our time, in fact, no living person has witnessed it before today. And today, more people have seen it from the park where I'm sitting that in the rest of human history. Also, it had tremendous importance for the development of science, as it gave the first absolute measurements of distances in the solar system. Especially in 1769, a transit made science take huge leaps forward. And BTW, New Zealand and Australia were 'discovered' in the process" Some nice photos from the UK, photos from vt-2004.org, and if you missed it, it'll be eight short years till you can try again.
Aarrghh... (Score:1, Funny)
urp. (Score:3, Funny)
In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
Site down so here's an ASCII pic (Score:5, Funny)
Not quite finished. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In case of Slashdotting-Article Text (Score:2, Funny)
I don't know, this sounds more like the transit of Uranus.
Impressive (Score:5, Funny)
The great indicator... (Score:5, Funny)
It amuses me that any channel that covers these kind of events spends 2% of their times covering the basics of astronomy and why this event is quite rare.
The other 98% is spent explaining the danger of staring directly at the sun.
Then... I go to the park to eat my lunch in the sunshine (rare in the UK) only to see hoards of people doing exactly this (or thinking that cheap sunglasses will protect them). Worse is mothers trying to show their kids ("Mummy, mummy, I cant see anything... and my eyes hurt"... "Just keep looking sweety... you will see it when your eyes lose sensativity!").
So a further warning to slashdotters...
Dont stare directly at the sun...
Just get someone else to do it and descibe it to you
Pictures (Score:3, Funny)
6 years early.... (Score:2, Funny)
And a helpful picture (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Site down so here's an ASCII pic (Score:4, Funny)
Re:urp. (Score:5, Funny)
There once was a transit of Venus
That in the States went quite unseen-us
But in the UK
I watched it all day
And made a sundial of my penis
(posting AC because I hate to cheat in my limericks. "Unseen-us?" Blech...)
Very similar to... (Score:2, Funny)
It was so breathtaking... (Score:1, Funny)
shadow puppets (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Another article (Score:5, Funny)
Venus shattering kaboom (Score:2, Funny)
Re:urp. (Score:5, Funny)
Which put that small planet between us
But you shouldn't stare
At the solar glare
'Cause it might shrivel up your... retinas.
Re:Another article (Score:1, Funny)
I would like to thank Sonic the hedge-hog and the Flash for their help in this matter.
Re:Impressive (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Cook more "claimed" Australia than discovered. (Score:4, Funny)
But did they have any flags?
Re:The great indicator... (Score:3, Funny)
Little Black Spot on the Sun (Score:1, Funny)
XEYES? (Score:3, Funny)
No, this is (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The great indicator... (Score:1, Funny)
A Møøse once bit my sister... (Score:2, Funny)
Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti...
Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër ?
Re:Great event! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Living people have indeed witnessed Venus trans (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Great event! (Score:3, Funny)
Did anyone else expect a short skit by Monty Python to follow this sentence??