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Cat Forum / Cat Anecdotes / June 2004[OT][Geek] Transit of Venus
Just reminding the geeks out there that the transit of Venus is tomorrow (the 8th of June) No-one alive has seen one, because the last one happened in 1882! Its how Australia got discovered by Captain Cook in 1770 - he was trying to calculate the distance between teh earth and the sun by timing the 1769 transit in the Pacific and sorta stumbled across Aussieland a bit later. Yowie Yeah, I remember reading about that. Seems he lost it about a week later and it hasn't been seen since. :-) > Just reminding the geeks out there that the transit of Venus is tomorrow > (the 8th of June) [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Yowie  Signature"No, I could sleep, but I must not; death is too near; he must not steal up on me. These fifteen years I have been making ready for him; I will meet him awake." Maria Theresa When Clinton lied, no one died. > No-one alive has seen one, because the last one happened in 1882! Speaking of seeing one, what does it look like? Is there anything interesting about it, other than its rarity? Joyce >Speaking of seeing one, what does it look like? Is there anything >interesting about it, other than its rarity? > >Joyce What you see - and you should *never* but *never* look directly at the sun or you *will* blind yourself, painfully and possibly permanently, is a small dark circle traversing the face of the sun. For those in the UK, tomorrow morning, it's being shown on BBC during the Breakfast programme with Adam Hart-Davis reporting from the Greenwich Observatory. Also see http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/myspace/nightsky/transitofvenus.shtml Cheers, helen s --This is an invalid email address to avoid spam-- to get correct one remove fame & fortune h*$el*$$e*nd**$o$ts**i*$*$m*m$o*n*s@$*a$o*l.c**$om$ --Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off-- >>Speaking of seeing one, what does it look like? Is there anything >>interesting about it, other than its rarity? [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > --Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off-- Usses here in the US can't see it, so no point in looking at the sun and blinding yourself for no reason. This isn't an event for this side of the pond. I mean to complain to those in charge about this. Bridget >Usses here in the US can't see it, so no point in looking at the sun and >blinding yourself for no reason. This isn't an event for this side of >the pond. I mean to complain to those in charge about this. > >Bridget At least you can see it on the web :-) Cheers, helen s --This is an invalid email address to avoid spam-- to get correct one remove fame & fortune h*$el*$$e*nd**$o$ts**i*$*$m*m$o*n*s@$*a$o*l.c**$om$ --Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off-- www.spaceweather.com Back to lurkhood. Paulette That's not true Bridget. Here in the northeast, the sunrise is 5:08 and the transit ends at 7:25. If the sky is clear, I plan to look (through 4 layers of exposed xray film) about 6 AM. -MIKE That's not true Bridget. Here in the northeast, the sunrise is 5:08 and the transit ends at 7:25. If the sky is clear, I plan to look (through 4 layers of exposed xray film) about 6 AM. -MIKE In the fine newsgroup "rec.pets.cats.anecdotes", Bridget <metektor@insightbb.com> artfully composed this message within <news:qWXwc.58286$eY2.20759@attbi_s02> on 07 Jun 2004: > Usses here in the US can't see it, so no point in looking at the > sun and blinding yourself for no reason. This isn't an event > for this side of the pond. I mean to complain to those in > charge about this. The news broadcast this morning said we in the east can see the event between ~7am - 7:20am. I'm normally on my way in to work at that hour, so I'm going to try to be at the office by 7. SignatureCheryl > >>Speaking of seeing one, what does it look like? Is there anything > >>interesting about it, other than its rarity? [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > blinding yourself for no reason. This isn't an event for this side of > the pond. I mean to complain to those in charge about this. This gives you the times that the more eastern & northern USA can see t least some of it. Sydney and hte east coast of Australia are in a similar position; we won't get to see all of it either, as the sun will set before Venus is even half way across. But I do intend to try and see what I can. Yowie >>> Speaking of seeing one, what does it look like? Is there anything >>> interesting about it, other than its rarity? [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > > Bridget Here in Purrth most of the transit happens before sunset, but I'm afraid it's cloudy and bucketing down with rain today so we are unlikely to see much :( Helen Wheels > Here in Purrth most of the transit happens before sunset, but I'm > afraid it's cloudy and bucketing down with rain today so we are > unlikely to see much :( > Helen Wheels Yup, cloudy and looks like rain here in Helsinki, too, so no drop effect of the Venus kind. :o( SignatureMarina, Frank and Nikki Email marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi Pics at http://uk.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/frankiennikki > Here in Purrth most of the transit happens before sunset, but I'm > afraid it's cloudy and bucketing down with rain today so we are > unlikely to see much :( But what *do* you see - if you can see it? And taking all the usual precautions against blindness, etc. What is it that is so interesting about it? Does Venus light up and glow? Does it do a dance? What's the show all about? I just don't know anything about it. Never heard of it before this week. Joyce, astronomy-challenged > > Here in Purrth most of the transit happens before sunset, but I'm > > afraid it's cloudy and bucketing down with rain today so we are [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Joyce, astronomy-challenged Well I guess it's just this little black dot thingy that slowly moves over the sun. Personally I get a kick out ot looking at things in the sky because it reminds me just what a big and amazing thing our universe is and how little of it we know about. And I think stars and planets are pretty too. To each geek her own! Australia's CSIRO are running a live webcast at http://www.transit.csiro.au/, but right now it looks like it's cloudy in Canberra too. Helen Wheels >> But what *do* you see - if you can see it? And taking all the usual >> precautions against blindness, etc. What is it that is so interesting [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >> >> Joyce, astronomy-challenged > Well I guess it's just this little black dot thingy that slowly > moves over the sun. Personally I get a kick out ot looking at > things in the sky because it reminds me just what a big and > amazing thing our universe is and how little of it we know about. > And I think stars and planets are pretty too. To each geek her own! Didn't mean to imply that folks shouldn't enjoy it. I just didn't know what "it" was! Thanks for illuminating (pun intended), Joyce >But what *do* you see - if you can see it? And taking all the usual >precautions against blindness, etc. What is it that is so interesting [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > >Joyce, astronomy-challenged Well, from my garden this morning, on a fantastically sunny and clear day (Yes!), I donned the eclipse viewers and looked to the sun (has to be proper eclipse viewers - ordinary sunglasses do *not* stop your retinas from being fried, but eclipse viewers do). The sun has a small balck dot traversing its face. Currently the dot is at about the 5 o'clock position. So what's so important about this tiny black dot? Well, it puts the size of the sun & the planets into perspective - the sun is *huge* compared to the planets - Venus & Earth are about the same size, and it makes it sink in as to exactly how small our planet is. It was used to make the calculation of the Astronomical Unit - that is the distance between the earth and the sun See http://www.open2.net/prog_pages/transit_of_venus/viewer/object/4672.html http://www.open2.net/prog_pages/transit_of_venus/viewer/object/4630.html The AU is a Very Useful Tool for measuring distances in space - of nearby objects, as first done by Edmund Halley in 1680 Cheers, helen s (fascinated by matter astronomical) --This is an invalid email address to avoid spam-- to get correct one remove fame & fortune h*$el*$$e*nd**$o$ts**i*$*$m*m$o*n*s@$*a$o*l.c**$om$ --Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off-- >>But what *do* you see - if you can see it? And taking all the usual >>precautions against blindness, etc. What is it that is so interesting [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] >Earth are about the same size, and it makes it sink in as to exactly how small >our planet is. Tsk. Now I have the Pythons' "Galaxy Song" going round my head and it's all your fault ;-p SignatureCathi I did see it this morning about 6:30. I used four layers of exposed x-ray film. At first I couldn't see it but then I got my binoculars (7 power) and was just able to see the dot. -MIKE >Tsk. Now I have the Pythons' "Galaxy Song" going round my head and it's >all your fault ;-p I do like the final bit of that... "So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, How amazingly unlikely is your birth, And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth." Cheers, helen s :-) --This is an invalid email address to avoid spam-- to get correct one remove fame & fortune h*$el*$$e*nd**$o$ts**i*$*$m*m$o*n*s@$*a$o*l.c**$om$ --Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off-- > >Tsk. Now I have the Pythons' "Galaxy Song" going round my head and it's > >all your fault ;-p [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, > 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth." Thanks. Now I"ve got it running around in my head, too. <sigh> Yowie |
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