Here’s a date to mark in your diary [really? – Ed]. On the 5/6 June this year one of the rarest predictable astronomical events will occur – a transit of Venus. [Can’t wait… – Ed] Since the invention of the greatest human innovation, the telescope, at the beginning of the 17th century, not by Galileo, there have been only 7 such transits. And, although the last one was in 2004, the next will not happen until 11 December 2117. [I’ll catch it then! – Ed]
Nasa’s Sun-Earth Day website will be providing a live web cast during the 6 hour transit. And via LittleSDOHMI, here’s a 4min trailer of the event from transitofvenus.org summarizing the history and significance of the transit of Venus while preparing for the June 5-6, 2012, spectacle. There’s also a mention of transit-hunting in the search for exoplanets. From TransitVenus on YouTube
And from SunEarthDay on YouTube, part1 of a 6 part series of clips highlighting the history and the science behind the transit and the culture and history of Hawaii. As you’d expect, one of Those [Royal Society] Guys makes an appearance…
In the meantime, because I can, here’s the wondrous night sky above the ESO Very Large Telescope array [VLT], in Chile. [Video credit: ESO/S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard) ESO/José Francisco Salgado (josefrancisco.org)]
Adds Bah. Despite the ESO footage the earlier video is being claimed by BBC Worldwide. Try this instead, also from NikoBustos. [Video credit: ESO/José Francisco Salgado (josefrancisco.org)]
Or even this [Video credit: ESO/S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard) ESO/José Francisco Salgado (josefrancisco.org)]
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