Remembering the Transit of Venus on Its 10th Anniversary (space.com) 27
"Venus crossed the sun's face 10 years ago today," writes Space.com. "Most people alive will never see the sight again."
Long-time Slashdot reader davidwr is still thinking about it: Slashdot, what are your memories of the 2012 or 2004 transits? What about other celestial events that you probably won't live long enough to see again?
At Space.com, astronomer Tom Kress points out Mercury transits are more common, occurring about 13 times each century — and supplies some context (along with some cool photos): In 1639, English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks had improved on Kepler's tables using his own observations and aptitude for mathematics. He predicted a transit of Venus in December of that year with just a few weeks' notice, and sure enough it occurred. Kepler had miscalculated, and Horrocks became one of the only people in the world to have seen a transit of Venus....
Only six Venus transits have occurred since: in 1761 (as predicted by Kepler), 1769, 1874, 1882, 2004 and 2012. They come in pairs separated by eight years, but with more than a century between each set. The next transit won't occur until 2117 and, with this in mind, I made every effort to witness the entirety of the last one 10 years ago....
Shortly after noon local time, the black edge of the silhouette of Venus emerged on the face of the sun... A chorus of vocal awe erupted across the crowd of skywatchers, culminating in cheers of excitement as Venus' night-side began its rapid ingress onto the disk of the sun — a process that took just over 15 minutes....
I couldn't help but feel closer to Venus than I really was, standing on a huge terrestrial volcano and looking out at the most volcanic planet in the solar system.
Long-time Slashdot reader davidwr is still thinking about it: Slashdot, what are your memories of the 2012 or 2004 transits? What about other celestial events that you probably won't live long enough to see again?
At Space.com, astronomer Tom Kress points out Mercury transits are more common, occurring about 13 times each century — and supplies some context (along with some cool photos): In 1639, English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks had improved on Kepler's tables using his own observations and aptitude for mathematics. He predicted a transit of Venus in December of that year with just a few weeks' notice, and sure enough it occurred. Kepler had miscalculated, and Horrocks became one of the only people in the world to have seen a transit of Venus....
Only six Venus transits have occurred since: in 1761 (as predicted by Kepler), 1769, 1874, 1882, 2004 and 2012. They come in pairs separated by eight years, but with more than a century between each set. The next transit won't occur until 2117 and, with this in mind, I made every effort to witness the entirety of the last one 10 years ago....
Shortly after noon local time, the black edge of the silhouette of Venus emerged on the face of the sun... A chorus of vocal awe erupted across the crowd of skywatchers, culminating in cheers of excitement as Venus' night-side began its rapid ingress onto the disk of the sun — a process that took just over 15 minutes....
I couldn't help but feel closer to Venus than I really was, standing on a huge terrestrial volcano and looking out at the most volcanic planet in the solar system.
Re: (Score:2)
I remember it. There was a solar eclipse on May 20th, and then the Venus transit was a few weeks later on June 5th. So it was worth it to buy some filters since we could use them to view both. I watch the transit with my kids and some of their classmates on their school playground.
Re: (Score:2)
""Remembering" things I didn't see when they happened only to learn I can never see them now does not make me happy. "
Yes, it's like reading in the local newspaper that Pink Floyd played in your local stadium only the day after.
PS Dear kids, Floyd is the lastname that Pink no longer uses.
didnt that mark the actual end of reality (Score:2)
and the start of the simulation?
This gave us good perspective (Score:2)
Re: This gave us good perspective (Score:2)
I've seen two (Score:1)
"people alive will never see the sight again" (Score:2)
That was true in 1769, when Captain Cook took a long voyage to the far side of the world to observe the transit.
But since then we invented cameras and VCRs. No need to miss an episode.
Re: "people alive will never see the sight again" (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
The visibility has nothing to do with your position on earth.
Sure it does. Anyone on Mars will be able to see Venus transits many times before the next one visible on the earth.
Re: "people alive will never see the sight again" (Score:2)
But this is the dawn of the space age! (Score:4, Informative)
The next transit won't occur until 2117
There's one at 23:45 UTC, 19 August 2030 ... if you can make it to Mars by then. After that there are a further six transits of Venus visible from Mars this century, happening at: 18:43, 18 June 2032, 03:35, 5 November 2059, 15:50, 17 June 2064, 00:14, 5 November 2091, 11:16, 16 June 2096 and 06:00, 16 April 2098. Surely people will be living on Mars, and probably in other solar system locations from whence Venus transits can be viewed, long before 2117.
Predictions from here [fourmilab.ch].
Didn't get to see the Venus one. (Score:2)
I guess that's it for me, definitely won't be around for the next one :)
I have observed a couple of Mercury transits, the consolation price. Last time was in 2016 (took some pics too: https://astro.ecuadors.net/2016-mercury-transit-heaton-park/ [ecuadors.net]), although inner planet transits are not as exciting as say total eclipses of the Sun, for which most of us there's still time as long as we are willing to make the trip (here [ecuadors.net] for pics from my 2017 trip to Madisonville, TN).
About other events I will probably not live
Speaking of Shoemaker-Levy 9 (Score:1)
A reprise from a post I made in 2004 [slashdot.org]:
Super Comet Fragment Impact
Jordin T. Kare and Bill Higgins
Copyright 1994 by Jordin T. Kare and Bill Higgins
So Bill asked innocently whether anyone had written a song about the
Jovian Train Wreck, and the Muse of Parody tortured Jordin until the
answer was "yes." Tune: "Super-califragilisticialidocious," [6/6/22: Hyphen inserted to avoid Slashdot lameness filter. -davidwr] of
course.
Chorus:
Super comet fragment impact extra-large explosions
Even though a sight to stir astronomers' emotions
If you watch them long enough you'll get peculiar notions
S-c-f-i-e-l-e
Verse 1
I used to talk of dinosaurs and layers of irid-
Ium until my friends all ran and all the neighbors hid.
But now my tales of comet hails are what they want to know
And all because Ma Nature has put on a cosmic show.
Verse 2
For several weeks those gleeful geeks have popped up on my Teevee
Astronomers displaying pictures of Shoemaker-Levy
It's giving more enjoyment, from Mt. Stromlo to Caltech
Than a demolition derby or a locomotive wreck!
Verse 3
Professionals watch Jupiter with Keck and Hale and Hubble
But we can see those spots and flares with hardly any trouble
Be wary of astronomy, for it can change your life
I watched them with me girl one night, and now me girl's me wife
[whack!] And a stellar thing she is, too
Those...
(changed chorus:
If you watch them long enough you'll miss a few promotions...)
Shout-out to beamjocky [slashdot.org] AKA songwriter Bill Higgins.
Copied from a 1997 post to rec.music.folk (USENET) in 1997, archived by Google [google.com] and archive.org [archive.org].
This got me into astronomy (Score:2)
I remember the transit of Venus quite clearly. Knowing it would be an event I could witness only once, it was what convinced me to buy a decent telescope.
I'm sure many of us have looked through a crappy discovery channel $50 thing and declared astronomy a pointless hobby, but a lovely 8" Schmidt–Cassegrain, a decent mount, and solar film later and I had a new hobby that would provide me many years of joy.
Resulting picture of Venus at max transit, and one of the first 10 images I ever shot: https://img [imgur.com]
Re: This got me into astronomy (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks. I remember being so happy right until NASA posted theirs. :-) There's always someone with a bigger budget.
I have no memories. (Score:2)
I saw the 2012 one (Score:3)
I used a 10x50 binocular mounted on a tripod and projected on posterboard.
I also found out that John P Sousa wrote a march titled "Transit of Venus" and also a novel with the same title.
Both the 1874 and 1882 transits occurred in his lifetime although it is not certain if he saw both.
Who cares about Venus (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If that happens, we have bigger problems.
Either that or we're doing awesome because we're on Mars and can see Mars transit the sun every single day.
Or look at it this way, you get to watch an Earth transit every 24 hours.
Re: (Score:2)
Try this at home (Score:2)
Used a pair of marine binoculars with two telescope solar filters affixed to the end. Great for admiring sun spots as well.. Easy to pass around not so powerful that finding the sun is a chore.
Bitter Sweet Memory (Score:3)
She and I often stayed out late on our deck to watch meteor showers, and especially the apparition of comets.
However, this was the last astronomical event that we were able to share, since she became terminally ill shorty after and passed at the end of October that year.
The memories of this are both sweet and bitter.
Re: (Score:2)
Fuck dude, that sucks. That would probably make any astronomy in general painful for me and hard to continue.
Fabulous show at Ames Research Center (Score:2)
NASA Ames Research Center arranged Natalie Batalha, Kepler research scientist, presenting what Venus transit means for astronomy and how Kepler searches for earth sized planets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Outside the visitor's center was several amateur astronomers that set up their gear (quite impressive too), many non-astronomers attended so they can observe and also get ask all sorts of questions to many very knowledgeable people.
Interview with Dan Wright of San Jose Astronomical Association
htt [youtube.com]
Clouds (Score:2)
I was all set to observe it from my suburban Vancouver balcony. The clouds had other ideas, alas.
I did, however, observe the Mercury transit in 2016. The eclipse in 2017, which I observed from Idaho, was the best I've ever seen.
...laura