TRANSIT OF VENUS -- WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

English: Transit of Venus - Venus completely over the sun Italiano: Transito di Venere sul Sole Русский: Прохождение Венеры по диску Солнца (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why was the recent Transit of Venus across the Sun such a big event and why have I been so enthralled with it?

1. It’s rare. Even though Venus revolves around the Sun once every 225 Earth days (approximately), the tilt of its orbit relative to that of the Earth’s allows for this “line of sight” view only two times (separated by eight years) every 243 years - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus.

2. Its duration (around 6 hours) was much longer than other viewable-from-earth astronomical phenomena such as lunar and solar eclipses which last only a couple of hours at most from start to finish. Therefore, the window of opportunity for watching the event was much greater.

3. It is unusual to be able to see Venus at all during the day, even though it is easily viewable in the evenings and mornings.

4. Scientifically, transits of Venus have been very important in that the study of them helped to produce accurate estimates of the distance from the Earth to the Sun. This distance, deemed one astronomical unit, is useful as a scale for describing the distances between other objects in the universe as well, in particular those of our own Solar System.

Furthermore, the June 2012 transit is anticipated to assist in the refinement of techniques that will be used in the search for exoplanets – planets that revolve around stars other than our Sun: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/16/venus-transit-june-5-new-alien-planet_n_1522342.html

5. Finally, it provided a great excuse for professional and amateur astronomers alike to commune and enjoy an important celestial sight. NASA even provided live webcasts of the event from several high-profile venues for people wanting to watch the spectacle, but were without the ability to do so: http://sunearthday.gsfc.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/

Additionally, many other local, formal and informal viewing gatherings were held around the world.

Why The Transit Of Venus Was Such A Big Event For Me

1. I’ve been interested in astronomy off and on since I was young, and even though I had stepped away from it for many years, I regained interest in it earlier this year. I even started this "Aspen Astronomy" blog".

I had been aware of this event for several months and I did not want to miss documenting it. I was unprepared for the last major Sun-related event, the 2012annular solar eclipse, and had only a moderately successful viewing of it. I wanted to do better.

2. When the time for the Venus Transit came, I was able to share the moment, so to speak, with my mom and my friends. Although I actually ended up watching it with my mom only, I did give many pairs of solar eclipse glasses that I had purchased for the event to other family members and friends.

My Experience Of The Transit Of Venus 2012

Initially, without the aid of magnification, it was difficult to see the small dot of Venus moving across the Sun because it was still so close to the edge, but as it moved across the interior of the golden orb, it became easily discernible.

I tried taking photographs of the transit with a small camera equipped with a pair of the solar eclipse glasses covering the lens, but the images were too small to actually show the dot of Venus within the Sun. I did however get some good shots of my mother enjoying the show: