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Venus Transit Finished

Posted by michael on from the all-summer-in-a-day dept.

KjetilK writes "Venus is just about to cross the solar disc. Direct from the control room in the Frogner Park in Oslo, I'm pleased to inform you that we have a great webcast, and as far as we know, it is the only webcast that still stands upright... Slashdotters, do your worst! ;-) A Venus transit is one of the most unique astronomical events in our time, in fact, no living person has witnessed it before today. And today, more people have seen it from the park where I'm sitting that in the rest of human history. Also, it had tremendous importance for the development of science, as it gave the first absolute measurements of distances in the solar system. Especially in 1769, a transit made science take huge leaps forward. And BTW, New Zealand and Australia were 'discovered' in the process" Some nice photos from the UK, photos from vt-2004.org, and if you missed it, it'll be eight short years till you can try again.

6 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Simultaneous Transit with the Space Station by lecithin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you were lucky, you may have been able to see the ISS transit the sun at the same time. Details on Thomas Fly's site: http://iss-transit.sourceforge.net/IssVenusTransit .html

    --
    It could be worse, it could be Monday.
  2. pics i took by rexguo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just wanna share with you folks some pics I took using nothing but the most basic equipment, including using a piece of Epson inkjet paper for projecting the image...

    --
    www.rexguo.com - Technologist + Designer
  3. Best transit photo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here is the best photo you'll see of this morning's transit. Taken by Jerry Zhu a member of the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh.

    LINK

    Look down the page to see the "ring of light" images which prove Venus has an atmosphere (as if we didn't already know).

    -berek halfhand

  4. A few other pictures by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here's a few other pictures from a photography message board I frequent:

    Nice color:
    http://www.pbase.com/image/29906625

    Impressive quality:
    http://cakeru.image.pbase.com/image/29912804/large .jpg

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  5. 19th Century Venus Transit Quote by Titanium+Angel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I posted this when Slashdot ran the previous Venus transit story, but I'm afraid that not many people had the chance to read it, because I was pretty late into the discussion. Anyway, you don't get to read something like this every day, and the quote can be read in context now, this month, and never again.

    "There will be no other [transit of Venus] till the twenty-first century of our era has dawned upon the earth, and the June flowers are blooming in 2004. What will be the state of science when the next transit season arrives God only knows." - William Harkness, USNO, 1882.

  6. From Pomfret, CT, outside of Hartford by fuctape · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I couldn't believe this worked. We were visually observing the transit (Meade LX200 12", solar filter, natch) using an eyepiece, and on a whim, we tried to take a few shots with a little Kodak digicam -- through the eyepiece! It worked pretty well, I thought:

    http://tech.pomfretschool.org/~jl/images/venustran sit.jpg