Transit of Venus across the Disk of the Sun

No person alive today has seen the Transit of Venus across the disk of the sun that last occurred on 6th of December 1882. There have been only 5 previous transit observed by humans the first in 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, and 1882. If it is clear we will observe it from sunrise around 5:43AM until it ends around 7:26AM in the morning from the roof of the Parking Garage at Fenton and King Street on Tuesday, June 8, 2004. If it is hopelessly cloudy and predicted to continue that way well past the event then we will have a show in the planetarium watching web cams of this event. The real thing is better!
The reason why transits of Venus across the disk of the sun are important, aside from the spectacle and their rarity, is that is how we know that we are 8.3 light minutes (149 million kilometers, 93 million miles) away from the sun. By measuring the distance on the earth between two observers and the small angular difference between the two observers transit of Venus; we can scale up the earth distance to give us the earth to Venus distance and from that the earth to the sun distance of 1 AU (Astronomical Unit). All other distances to planets, stars, and galaxies are based upon this first close distance in our Solar System the AU. Before the AU was determined in terms of some known value on the earth we could not say how far the planets or stars or galaxies were away. All distances off of the earth are based upon our determination of the AU, and this is only our 6 opportunity to use this method with the transit of Venus across the disk of the Sun. Come join us for this scientifically historical event. The next transit of Venus occurs in 8 years in 2012, but then it will be visible from here near sun set, and you can not afford to wait until 2117. Snoozers on this earlier morning event will be losers.

NASA Sun Earth Day Transit of Venus pages.
TransitofVenus.org pages.
Fred Espenak's Transit of Venus pages.
The Transit of Venus & the Quest for the Solar Parallax by David Sellers.
http://www.venus-transit.de/ lots of stuff.
The 1882 Transits of Venus: Observed from Wellington, South Africa.
VT-2004 Project, European Southern Observatory.
What it looked like photographically in 1882.
Flyer made by Lou Mayo for this event in Power Point.
Free Parking in the Parking Garage on floors one through four. Fifth floor roof reserved for telescopes and people.
Internet Cafe on the first floor of the Parking Garage, where we are guaranteed views of the Sun.

Transit with TRACE from orbit, no clouds for sure. Near the earth so it does not miss the alignment.
Transit with SOHO from orbit, no clouds but it misses from it position, but will be visible across the corona.
Transit from Greece via the San Francisco Exploritorium, direct public web broadcast link.
Transit from Norway.
Transit from Portugal.
Transit from Switzerland.
Transit from the Saros group, physically Islas Canaria.

Real viewing of the Sun and the transit of Venus on the roof (fifth floor) through many telescopes, all with safe filters, some with H-alpha filters. Several projectors of the disk of the Sun viewable by all, but with less resolution than the telescope views. All roof top views depend upon clouds not being in front of the Sun when you view. You too can duplicate Jerimiah Horock's calculation of the distance of the Earth to the Sun, 1 AU, by assuming that Venus and Earth are the same size while you are on the roof. Calculators provided for those who do not want to do the multiplication and long division by hand, like Horock's did. It is a surprisingly simple calculation. Come and measure, rulers provided, and learn with us. Montgomery College is the community's college.
As an extra treat you may listen to the cicadas, which may make you wonder when last did Brood X Cicadas and the Transit of Venus across the disk of the Sun last occur. The answer seems to be May 22, 797AD and May 23, 921 BC before that, see http://www.transitofvenus.org/cicadas.htm for more details. See how special this day is, please join us for this special event.
Reflection on the transit:

Crowd was good, around 500 people enjoyed at least part of the one hour 26 minutes transit visible to us at Takoma Park, Maryland, USA.
Dr. Tom Van Flandern who helped me view the 3 and 4 contact with the college's new 10 inch Meade LX200 GPS SMT, under fairly high magnification for a solar image, has the best explanation of the black drop effect that I have seen and how what was perceived as a disadvantage can be turned into an advantage. After looking at TRACE images where there is no Earth's atmosphere, I am convinced that Tom is right. His physics also makes sense, too. Tom is good at many things; he is also responsible for explaining how Solar Eclipse views are best on the edge instead of the centerline. In 1991, I went to an Eclipse Edge expedition in Sayulitia, Mexico on July 11 with a group lead by Tom.
I want to especially thank Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, John Abbott, Lou Mayo, Jay Miller, and all of the other people who brought telescopes and made this public scientific event such a delight. It is great to have good friends. It is also great to have students like Jon Hellerman, Matthew Bowman, Leigh Gold, Nahanda Tankasala, LaMarkus Williams, and Julie Jaques and her son Francis. Montgomery College really is the communities college. I also want to thank all of the people who helped me with publicity within the college like Steve Simon, Elizabeth Holman, and the whole crew.
Image above taken by John Abbotts, a composit of images taken form the Roof of the Parking Garage at Montgomery College. If this is not cool, I don't know what is.
Image taken by Tomas Maruska
Rubinar 5.6/500 with Baader AstroSolar filter
WebCam Philips ToUCam Pro 740
1/10 000 sec at frame rate 30 im/sec
[Composite of 12 frames]
June 8, 2004, 10:09:18 UT
Stupava, Slovakia, which is not at the Parking Garage of Montgomery College at Takoma Park, Maryland, USA, but this, too is way cool.

Lets do it again in the afternoon of June 6, 2012 around 6PM EDT. Having done it once, I think, I know how to do it slightly better next time. See you for the Venus transit event in 8 years. Actually there is a transit of Mercury visible in the Washington Metro area on November 8, 2006 a little after 2PM until the sunsets, and we can see not see it any longer at 5PM. See you on the roof of the Parking Garage then, too!

Montgomery College's Planetarium home page

Last updated 9:20PM 6/21/2004 by Dr. Harold Williams