Slashdot Mirror
Everything You Need To Know About the June 5/6 Venus Transit
The Bad Astronomer writes "Next week, on June 5/6, there will be the last Venus transit across the face of the Sun until the year 2117. There are dozens of sites issuing press releases about it — online resources, watching live, viewing advice — so I've collected them into a single blog post with tons of links and my own advice on how to observe this (most likely) last-in-a-lifetime event. This complements the previous article on Slashdot from a few weeks ago."
I'm busy that day, I'll just wait for the next one ...
If I miss this, I'll just get in my spaceship and watch it some other time, from space.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
A few hundred years ago the British sent a ship out to the Pacific to observe the Transit Of Venus, with Captain James Cook in charge.
In addition to observing the rare astronomical event, he also discovered Australia
Which didn't turn out so good for the people who had been living there for 40,000 years.
Sure, they spend money on VENUS transit, but just try to get any sort of transit in LA!!!*
*Under the ADA, for the humor impaired, I am required to note that humor tags are implied for this post
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Cook was an enlightened captain, *generally* treating both is crew and the natives extremely well by the standards of the day. He extended our knowledge of several Pacific islands, especially New Zealand, charting them in great detail. However, their existence was generally already known about from the voyages of Ferdinand Magellan & Abel Tasman, so it's grossly unfair to blame Cook for any subsequent poor outcomes for natives in Australia & the Pacific.
A comic pamphlet that explains the historical importance etc...
http://mutha.ncra.tifr.res.in/ncra/for-public/transit-of-venus
While you can surely see more detail in astronomy (as well as microscopy) photos, the experience just isn't the same. For me and my family, watching the transit through my safely filtered binoculars is much more exciting that simply browsing through the results of a Google image search for '2004 Venus Transit.' For my kids especially, who live in a world full of digital experiences, seeing something significant in person is not to be missed.
Its a common misconception, but the "great southern land" Cook was tasked to find was not Australia -- it was another large continent in the south pacific. Cook criss-crossed the Pacific sufficiently to establish there was not room for another continent to be hiding. Having *not* discovered the great southern land, the next part of his mission was to go map the east coast of Australia. Everyone knew it was there, and had done for hundreds of years. But nobody had any accurate charts. He "charted", did not "discover".
Over 100 years ago during the last pair of Venus transists the 'march king' was so excited by the rare astronomical event that he wrote both a novel and a march titled 'Transist of Venus'. This Sousa march is rarely played today (I found one performance of it on Youtube by an obscure High School band) and you can download and read the novel which is in the public domain.