[ Post a Response | Ardsley High School (Class of '72) ]
Check out the most eclectic music on the WWW (not for the faint of heart): http://www.urdomain.us/kcuf.htm
Posted by Henry on June 2, 2004, 1:49 pm The transit of Venus or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence. As seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible. On average, there are 13 transits of Mercury each century. In contrast, transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating each pair. No living person (not even our parents!) has seen a transit of Venus, because the most recent one occurred in 1882. This situation is about to change since Venus will transit the Sun on Tuesday, 2004 June 08 (for example: for about one and three quarter hours at sunrise in Washington, DC, which is about 5:15). Warning: The Sun is dangerous to look at directly without a safe solar filter. Staring at it can cause serious eye injury or blindness. Fortunately, there are many easy ways to watch the transit safely. If you have keen vision, Venus should appear just large enough to be barely visible as a tiny black dot. But you'll need to use a safe solar filter, such as a #13 or #14 welder's glass or special "eclipse glasses" designed for solar viewing. Filters that are NOT safe, though sometimes recommended in error, include smoked glass, stacked sunglasses, metallized candy wrappers, and compact disks. While these will appear to darken the Sun, they may transmit enough infrared radiation to damage your eyes. Do not look directly into an unfiltered telescope or its finder! (The dark, glass disks that screw into the eyepiece of some older scopes are not safe and should be discarded. The Sun's light and heat, concentrated by the telescope, may shatter them suddenly.) Proper filters for binoculars and telescopes are available, and are the best way to view the transit, but please be careful. The link below is to a list of transit of Venus events and more information about viewing the transit can be found at http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/article_1258_1.asp . C'mon! If you're east of the Mississippi, ya gotta do this!
Link: Transit of Venus Events
As you are may be aware, we are due for an extremely rare planetary-solar event.
  |
|
Message Thread:
|
This board is operated by Henry. If you see something that you believe should be changed, please contact him.
