The transit of Venus observed by millions of people yesterday was a spectacular sight. Be it amateur astronomers or the general public, everyone was excited to watch the dark disk of Venus move across the surface of the sun. Though quite a lot of people observed the rare phenomenon, not many people were aware of the transit. It is unfortunate that people did not market this event like the other infamous event that is "scheduled" to happen later this year (read as December 21 2012). In this post I am going to give a few reason why you should have watched the transit of Venus yesterday.
1. It is a rare event: Transits of Venus currently occur in pairs separated by eight years and between pairs there is a separation of more than a century. The last transit occurred in 2004 while the next one will occur in 2117. Though not impossible, most people of Earth today wouldn't be able to witness the next transit. Isn't this a good enough reason for why you should have watched the transit yesterday? If you want to know why the transits of Venus occur in such a haphazard (though mathematically predictable!) manner, read this wikipedia page.
2. It is a historically significant event: Transits of Venus were used in the past to calculate the distance between Earth and Venus and thereby calculate the size of the solar system. Kepler's laws give us the relative size of the solar system with respect to Earth's orbit around the sun therefore if the distance between Earth and Venus can be measured, the size of the solar system can be calculated. The method used for this calculation is called the parallax method. If time permits, I will write an article about this in the future. By observing this transit you could have done this calculation yourself (with the help of a friend from another part of the globe). For more information on this experiment, watch this video.
3. Almost everyone in world can observe the transit of Venus: Since Venus takes a long time to go across the surface of the sun, there is usually enough time for the earth to turn around so that everyone can see the transit. That's different from solar and lunar eclipses as the moon is close to Earth.
4. It is beautiful: This is a reason that is true for all astronomical events. But the transit of Venus is special. Firstly, let's list all the big heavenly bodies that can transit across the surface of the sun from our perspective (from Earth). There are only three such heavenly bodies - Mercury, Venus and our very own Moon. Mercury is too small and too far away. So it doesn't look very impressive as it looks smaller than sunspots. The transit of our Moon across the surface of the sun is known by another name - Eclipse. As we know, eclipses are very common; there could be two to five eclipses in the same calendar year. Though the diamond ring is always a spectacular sight, the rarity of the Venus transit makes it more exciting. Also we can get a sense of how big the sun is. The sun is three times as far as Venus is from Earth! Yet Venus looks like a tiny dot. Phil Plait describes the beauty of the Venus transit here in this own words.
What if you missed this once in a lifetime opportunity?
In a way, this is the best transit that you could miss, thanks to the Internet. Due to advancement in social media, pictures and videos from the transit can be shared instantly with everyone. Facebook and Google+ have completely changed the way we share information with friends. So if you did miss the transit, here are some of the pictures and videos...
Firstly, let me share some of the pictures that I clicked with my telescope. I used my 130mm reflector telescope to project the image of the sun either onto the ceiling of my apartment or onto a white board.
The big black spot on the top is Venus while the other dots are sunspots. The lower left side of the sun is blocked by trees in this projection.
Here is another picture that everyone seems to like. I did not plan this photo. My phone blocked the top right corner of the projection which makes the sun look like Pac-Man. Lucky accident!
If you were impressed by the pictures that I clicked (I hope you were ;)), here are some of the most beautiful pictures of the transit that you will ever see.
The above picture was clicked by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a probe that monitors the surface of the sun. Even though Venus is much closer to us than the sun is, it is dwarfed by some of the coronal loops on Sun's surface.
Here is a composite picture from SDO.
A pic from the International Space Station
Finally, here is my favorite picture
The above picture was clicked by the Hinode probe which studies Sun's surface magnetism. What is beautiful about this picture is that there is ring around the black disk of Venus. The ring forms due to refraction of Sun's light by the atmosphere of Venus. This shows that Venus has an atmosphere and at the same time it also tells us how thin the atmosphere is when compared to the size of planet. This is true in the case of Earth too. Beautiful photograph!!!
Apart from these amazing photos, if you want to watch the entire transit, do not miss this video. It is a collection of videos of the transit shot at different wavelengths by SDO.
3. Almost everyone in world can observe the transit of Venus: Since Venus takes a long time to go across the surface of the sun, there is usually enough time for the earth to turn around so that everyone can see the transit. That's different from solar and lunar eclipses as the moon is close to Earth.
4. It is beautiful: This is a reason that is true for all astronomical events. But the transit of Venus is special. Firstly, let's list all the big heavenly bodies that can transit across the surface of the sun from our perspective (from Earth). There are only three such heavenly bodies - Mercury, Venus and our very own Moon. Mercury is too small and too far away. So it doesn't look very impressive as it looks smaller than sunspots. The transit of our Moon across the surface of the sun is known by another name - Eclipse. As we know, eclipses are very common; there could be two to five eclipses in the same calendar year. Though the diamond ring is always a spectacular sight, the rarity of the Venus transit makes it more exciting. Also we can get a sense of how big the sun is. The sun is three times as far as Venus is from Earth! Yet Venus looks like a tiny dot. Phil Plait describes the beauty of the Venus transit here in this own words.
What if you missed this once in a lifetime opportunity?
Firstly, let me share some of the pictures that I clicked with my telescope. I used my 130mm reflector telescope to project the image of the sun either onto the ceiling of my apartment or onto a white board.
The big black spot on the top is Venus while the other dots are sunspots. The lower left side of the sun is blocked by trees in this projection.
Here is another picture that everyone seems to like. I did not plan this photo. My phone blocked the top right corner of the projection which makes the sun look like Pac-Man. Lucky accident!
If you were impressed by the pictures that I clicked (I hope you were ;)), here are some of the most beautiful pictures of the transit that you will ever see.
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| Credit: NASA/SDO, AIA |
Here is a composite picture from SDO.
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| Credit: NASA/SDO, AIA |
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| Credit: NASA |
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| Credit: JAXA/NASA/Lockheed Martin |
Apart from these amazing photos, if you want to watch the entire transit, do not miss this video. It is a collection of videos of the transit shot at different wavelengths by SDO.
Finally, If you are interested in looking at some of the pictures clicked by the general public and amateur astronomers, here is a link to an article in daily mail.
The transit of Venus was indeed a spectacular sight that I am sure I wouldn't be able to see again in my lifetime. It is worth every minute that you spend looking at these pictures and videos.
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