RASC Calgary Centre - Venus Transit 2004
Venus to transit the sun June 8, 2004!
On June 8, 2004, a very rare astronomical event will be visible from portions of our planet. The event is called a Venus Transit and the last observed pair was in 1874 and 1882. It is fairly safe to say there is no one alive today who has observed this rare event. A transit occurs when one of the inner planets (Mercury or Venus) travels across the face of the sun. This is similar to a total solar eclipse, the only difference is that a distant planet is passing in front of the sun and not our neighbour the moon. Unless you have a telescope, you would not notice that a transit was occurring because there would be no appreciable change in the amount of sunlight reaching us here on earth.
Although a transit is widely visible, one still has to be situated on the portion of the earth that is daylight and most likely to have clear skies. To observe this event, members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Calgary Centre, are planning an expedition to Egypt where some of the earliest sky watchers studied the heavens. This location was selected as it has excellent weather prospects and is situated near the point where the transit will occur high overhead. There is a 94% chance of clear skies to observe this event from Egypt.
The Calgary Centre has been leading astronomical expeditions since the 1960's and has successfully observed total solar and lunar eclipses, comet Halley and would like to add a Venus Transit to their list. There is one more opportunity to view this event in 2012 and then we will have to wait a century to see the next pair in 2117 and 2125. The members of the Calgary Centre are well trained in safe solar viewing methods and will provide safe viewing filters plus a filtered telescope to observe the transit.
Civilized Adventures has organized an outstanding tour to explore the mysteries of Egypt and combined with the Venus transit, make this is a trip of a lifetime.
For more information about this tour contact Civilized Adventures at:
Info@civilizedadv.com
Or by phone at (403) 205-4120 or 1-800-688-1804 (in North America)
If you would like to learn more about Venus transits, go to Fred Espenak's web page listed below.
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/venus0412.html
Don Hladiuk has written a 1.3MB Adobe Acrobat Reader document about the Civilized Adventures tour May 29 - June 11, 2004. You can receive a copy of this file by e-mailing a request to the webmaster.
Tour Leader: Don Hladiuk. Don has been a member of the RASC since 1973 and was twice president of the Calgary Centre. His first total solar eclipse was in 1979 and has since chased total solar eclipses in 1980, 1983, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001, and now 2002 (all successful). He also chased two annular eclipses in 1984 and 1994. He has been leading and co-leading astronomical expeditions since 1986 (Comet Halley). For over 19 years, Don has been heard on the CBC morning show called the EyeOpener where he describes what to look for in the night sky.
A simulated image of what the Venus transit will look like is pictured above. The image is courtesy of Fred Espenak.
Warning! Observing the sun can permanently damage your eyes, therefore extreme caution and only using approved solar observing equipment should be used.
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Page last updated November 2, 2003