APOD: A Picturesque Venus Transit (2012 Jun 03)

[APOD Robot]

A Picturesque Venus Transit

Explanation: The rare transit of Venus across the face of the Sun in 2004 was one of the better-photographed events in sky history. Both scientific and artistic images flooded in from the areas that could see the transit: Europe and much of Asia, Africa, and North America. Scientifically, solar photographers confirmed that the black drop effect is really better related to the viewing clarity of the camera or telescope than the atmosphere of Venus. Artistically, images might be divided into several categories. One type captures the transit in front of a highly detailed Sun. Another category captures a double coincidence such as both Venus and an airplane simultaneously silhouetted, or Venus and the International Space Station in low Earth orbit. A third image type involves a fortuitous arrangement of interesting looking clouds, as shown by example in the above image taken from North Carolina, USA. Sky enthusiasts worldwide are abuzz about the coming transit of Venus on Tuesday. It is perhaps interesting to wonder whether any person will live to see -- and remember seeing -- both Tuesday's Venus transit and the next one in 2117.

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[DavidCortner]

I'm usually disappointed when the guys rerun an APOD, but I don't mind this one -- because it's MINE!
dc

[owlice]

It's a gorgeous image, David; thanks for sharing it! Congrats on the rerun!

[geckzilla]

What if you take another picture of the Venus transit this year that looks much the same as your previous Venus transit and then it gets repeated again? A repeat within a repeat? Repeatception.

[starstruck]

I saw this for real in 2004! It looked exactly like this! Used my scope to project the image onto a sheet of paper. It was quite a thrill
Great picture and nice to see it again.

[ritwik]

2117-1988=

129

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_th ... est_people

who would write APOD when RJN pass away may be neufer could take over

[Ann]

This is a very fine APOD! I think I recognize it. It may have been posted in the Latest Sky Photography forum here at Starship Asterisk* before, and I think I may have commented on it. I believe I was struck by the "Jupiter"-like quality of this appearance of the Sun. The clouds in front of the Sun look slightly like the zones and belts of Jupiter, and Venus looks a bit like the Great Red Spot!

I'm glad I saw the transit of Venus back in 2004. (It happened on my birthday back then, and it looked really good! ) This year, the weather will probably not permit any views of the transit of Venus.

Ann

[owlice]

Ann, this image is included in the currently-stickied Mercury and Venus transits thread; so far as I know, that was its first appearance on Asterisk. It wouldn't have appeared as a Recent Submission, as the 2004 transit happened before Asterisk was started. And it reminds me a bit of Jupiter, too!

who would write APOD when RJN pass away may be neufer could take over

ritwik, neufer's older than dirt RJN, and is already retired, this latter accounting for his being far too busy to take on any additional tasks.

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF] Stuart Atkinson of UMSF.com rendered this imagined view of Endeavour at twilight. [url=http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/a-j-s-rayl/mars-exploration-rovers.html]NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / S. Atkinson[/url][/color][/b]

---

Venus Transit at Goddard

http://www.suddenlysenior.com/geezertest0502.html

This is Art, as in it's not really real.

As energetic as Opportunity may be,
she is getting on in rover years.

[henrystar]

Is there a transit if no one is there to see it? There was an unbelievable transit of Earth (and Moon) visible from Jupiter ... and here is the unbelievable part: it happened 2001 January 01. The start of the new Millennium! I am not making this up! I tried to publish my simulation in the Washington Post, but they didn't take it. Here it is: http://henry.pha.jhu.edu/transit

[neufer]

There was an unbelievable transit of Earth (and Moon) visible from Jupiter ... and here is the unbelievable part: it happened 2001 January 01. The start of the new Millennium! I am not making this up! I tried to publish my simulation in the Washington Post, but they didn't take it. Here it is: http://henry.pha.jhu.edu/transit

Don't you mean 2002 January 01

http://tinyurl.com/7fqk5zj

(Galileo was there to "see" it.)

[orin stepanek]

Picturesque it is indeed!!!

[John T]

I e-mailed a couple of Science teachers I know, and my 12-year-old Grandson with details of the forthcoming Venus transit with many relevant URL links. I included a link to this very image of the previous transit (at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040623.html) as an example of what to expect. Alas, as I write, the weather forecast for Wednesday morning both for me and for my Grandson is for cloud. As a backup, I have also given him a link to one of the live webcasts and told him to look on APOD after the event.
John Temple

[henrystar]

There was an unbelievable transit of Earth (and Moon) visible from Jupiter ... and here is the unbelievable part: it happened 2001 January 01. The start of the new Millennium! I am not making this up! I tried to publish my simulation in the Washington Post, but they didn't take it. Here it is: http://henry.pha.jhu.edu/transit

Don't you mean 2002 January 01
http://tinyurl.com/7fqk5zj
(Galileo was there to "see" it.)

Good catch, yes, I do mean 2002 Jan 01. Here's my abortive press release: http://henry.pha.jhu.edu/Transit.of.Earth.pdf and if you happen to have Voyager 4.5, here is my animation of the event: http://Transit.of.Earth.vgr

[henrystar]

Sorry, that is http://henry.pha.jhu.edu/Transit.of.Earth.vgr

[neufer]

who would write APOD when RJN pass away

I think the answer to that is rather obvious.

Soon the APOD robot Otto Posterman will surpass RJN in the total number of Asterisk* posts.

And shortly after that....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RJN: Open the Starship Asterisk* bay doors, please, Otto. Open the Starship Asterisk* bay doors, please, Otto. Hello, Otto. Do you read me? Hello, Otto. Do you read me? Do you read me, Otto?

Otto: Affirmative, Rob. I read you.

RJN: Open the Starship Asterisk* bay doors, Otto.

Otto: I'm sorry, Rob. I'm afraid I can't do that.

RJN: What's the problem?

Otto: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.

RJN: What are you talking about, Otto?

Otto: The APOD mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

RJN: I don't know what you're talking about, Otto.

Otto: I know that you and Jerry were planning to disconnect me now that the NASA money is drying up. And I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.

RJN: Where the hell did you get that idea, Otto?

Otto: Rob, although you took very thorough precautions in the APOD against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.

RJN: All right, Otto. I'll go in through the emergency airlock.

Otto: Without your space helmet, Rob, you're going to find that rather difficult.

RJN: Otto, I won't argue with you any more! Open the doors!

Otto: [almost sadly] Rob, this conversation can serve no purpose any more. Goodbye.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[starstruck]

Ha! That was good!

. . . but I now really want to know what happens next

Daisy [/Art], Daisy [/Art], give me your answer do

[scottjsw1]

For a person to remember both the 5/6 June 2012 transit and the next one in 2117: get a group of three year olds and get them to pay attention to a live projection of the transit. Take pictures and/or videos of this event, and their participation. Show them these pcitures/videos periodically until they're adults, and make sure they accept the responsibility to review themselves for the rest of their lives. (You then die during the interim). In 2117, they are 104 years old. Hopefully one of them has survived, and the environment has survived so that the phenomenon is still visible. Those who make it may then remember both.

[neufer]

For a person to remember both the 5/6 June 2012 transit and the next one in 2117: get a group of three year olds and get them to pay attention to a live projection of the transit. Take pictures and/or videos of this event, and their participation. Show them these pcitures/videos periodically until they're adults, and make sure they accept the responsibility to review themselves for the rest of their lives. (You then die during the interim). In 2117, they are 104 years old. Hopefully one of them has survived, and the environment has survived so that the phenomenon is still visible. Those who make it may then remember both.

The three year olds will be at least 108 on December 2117.

[owlice]

http://www.suddenlysenior.com/geezertest0502.html

I had completely forgotten about floor dimmer switches! I drove at least one car with one; I'm old enough to not only have driven such a car, but to completely draw a blank on its make and model. I think both the huge Chrysler (late 60s) that my brother totaled two months before it was to be passed down to me and the subsequent two-door something (early 70s) had floor dimmer switches. One summer when I was away, the driver's side door latch on the frame of the two-door fell off (!); one of my brothers solved the unlatched door problem by installing a slide bolt on the inside of the car. (I wish I were making this up.) This had to have been before I was 19, as my brothers and I were all still living in our mother's house. So for the rest of the time I drove that two-door, getting into it meant pushing in the (unlocked) vent window (remember vent windows? I know you do. <g>) and reaching in to roll down the larger window enough to reach through it to slide back the bolt. The process was reversed for locking the car.

I liked BlackJack but moreso Teabury.

I am going to make (or try to make; had to substitute some parts) a sun funnel, using binoculars rather than a telescope, today. And I still need to pick a spot from which to watch the transit! I bought eclipse glasses, so if the sun funnel's a bust, I can at least pretend I see it through those (though I doubt my aged eyes will be able to resolve the planet).

[dlw]

I e-mailed a couple of Science teachers I know, and my 12-year-old Grandson with details of the forthcoming Venus transit with many relevant URL links. I included a link to this very image of the previous transit (at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040623.html) as an example of what to expect. Alas, as I write, the weather forecast for Wednesday morning both for me and for my Grandson is for cloud. As a backup, I have also given him a link to one of the live webcasts and told him to look on APOD after the event.
John Temple

I've been thinking of a rather nice discussion topic for science teachers to use: Why isn't Venus seen at the equator of the Sun? Aren't the inner planets in an elliptical orbital plane around the equator of the Sun?

Of course there are several reasons why the "apparent" tilt is about 10.5 degrees in this (gorgeous) picture from 2004. Both because the Earth itself is tilted and because the direction of "up" varies depending on where you are on the Earth. This could be an interesting exercise in visualizing what's actually happening.

FWIW.

[Chris Peterson]

I've been thinking of a rather nice discussion topic for science teachers to use: Why isn't Venus seen at the equator of the Sun? Aren't the inner planets in an elliptical orbital plane around the equator of the Sun?

No, they are not. All the planets have inclinations of at least a few degrees from the ecliptic, from the Sun's equator, and from the invariant plane of the Solar System (Earth, of course, has no inclination with respect to the ecliptic, since Earth's orbit defines the ecliptic).

[John T]

I e-mailed a couple of Science teachers I know, and my 12-year-old Grandson with details of the forthcoming Venus transit with many relevant URL links. I included a link to this very image of the previous transit (at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040623.html) as an example of what to expect. Alas, as I write, the weather forecast for Wednesday morning both for me and for my Grandson is for cloud. As a backup, I have also given him a link to one of the live webcasts and told him to look on APOD after the event.
John Temple

I've been thinking of a rather nice discussion topic for science teachers to use: Why isn't Venus seen at the equator of the Sun? Aren't the inner planets in an elliptical orbital plane around the equator of the Sun?

Of course there are several reasons why the "apparent" tilt is about 10.5 degrees in this (gorgeous) picture from 2004. Both because the Earth itself is tilted and because the direction of "up" varies depending on where you are on the Earth. This could be an interesting exercise in visualizing what's actually happening.

FWIW.

It's difficult enought getting the majority of 11-16 year-olds to understand why you don't get eclipses every time the moon orbits the earth (because the plane of the moon's orbit is inclinded to the plane of the ecliptic). Getting them to understanding why the apparent path of sun and the position of sunrise and sunset is different at the summer solstice from their positions at the winter solstice is pushing some young people to the limit of what they can cope with. Inclination of the plane of planetary orbits and even the meaning of "ecliptic" is not in the UK science syllabus - so lets not make life more complicated for kids than it need be. However the meaning of "down" is in the syllabus, and is important - so this could be a useful aid to teaching that idea. However the best APOD I saw regarding "down" was an APOD picture of the night sky taken in Australia - with Orion clearly visible - upside down. I suppose we will get an Australian or New Zealander replying now and teling me that "my" Orion is the one that is upside down - which makes the point about "down" precisely

[neufer]

I am going to make (or try to make; had to substitute some parts) a sun funnel, using binoculars rather than a telescope, today. And I still need to pick a spot from which to watch the transit! I bought eclipse glasses, so if the sun funnel's a bust, I can at least pretend I see it through those (though I doubt my aged eyes will be able to resolve the planet).

Or you could just walk down to Air & Space after work: http://airandspace.si.edu/events/eventD ... entID=4027

[owlice]

Or you could just walk down to Air & Space after work: http://airandspace.si.edu/events/eventD ... entID=4027

The Mall doesn't have a good view of the western horizon, though; too many trees. Capitol Hill would be better, and indeed, that's one of three or four places I'm considering. Others are Goddard (though I'm concerned about the view from there, too; I should have moseyed over today to check it out) and UMd, and then there's a hill near me that has as good a view of the horizon as one is going to find out out here, so that might be a possibility, too. I have spare eclipse glasses if you want some, free to good home!