2. WHAT IS A TRANSIT OF VENUS? The planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth Tiny Venus tracks across the face of our giant Sun Pairs of transits occur every 105.5 years to 121.5 years Last transits of Venus: June 5, 2012 June 8, 2004 Next transits of Venus: Dec 10-11, 2117 Dec 2125

3. WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE

4. HOW DOES A TRANSIT WORK? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehHY9fTrb7Q

5. SOME HISTORY 1627 - Johannes Kepler became the first person to predict a transit of Venus, by predicting the 1631 event (not very accurately) 1639 – first scientific observation by Jeremiah Horrocks in England using a telescope projecting an image of the Sun onto a piece of paper 1761 and 1769 – scientists of the day proposed to use solar parallax to calculate the Astronomical Unit 1761 – scientists observed from: Siberia, Norway, Newfoundland, Madagascar & South Africa 1769 – scientists observed from: Hudson Bay, Baja California, Tahiti, Norway & from several locations in Russia 1874 & 1882 – scientists had accurately calculated the Astronomical Unit – 149.59 M kms

6. POINT VENUS, TAHITI – JAMES COOK (1769)

7. PLANNING FOR 2012

8. WEATHER – TO TRAVEL…OR NOT We were having the worst weather for years in early June Do I run or do I stay? Drive the motor home to Redding, CA Fly to Las Vegas Fly to Yellowknife Fly to Maui Forget it…I’m staying!

9. EQUIPMENT – BINOCULARS & SOLAR FILTERS

10. EQUIPMENT –SOLAR FILTER GLASSES

11. EQUIPMENT – TELESCOPE & SOLAR FILTER

12. PHOTOS – SOLAR FILTER & TELEPHOTO LENS

13. PREPARATION FOR THE BIG DAY

14. THE START – FIRST CONTACT – 3:09:38PM

15. MID-POINT BETWEEN CONTACT I & II – 3:10:47PM

16. SECOND CONTACT – 3:27:34PM

17. MID POINT - GREATEST TRANSIT - 5:29:36PM

18. THREE QUARTER POINT - 8:00PM

19. LAST GLIMPSE OF VENUS TRANSITING THE SUN - 8:37PM

20. LOST IN THE TREES & CLOUDS

21. JUST ABOVE THE TREES

22. TRACKING ACROSS THE SUN

32. NASA’S SOLAR DYNAMIC OBSERVATORY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9rM8ChTjY

33. WHAT’S NEXT? Transit of Mercury in May 2016 Entire transit visible in eastern North America and Western Europe & Africa Partially visible in western North America, Africa, Middle East, Russia, parts of Asia

34. TRANSIT OF MERCURY – NOV 8, 2006

35. RESOURCES eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov – click on Transit of Venus of 2012 www.transitofvenus.org en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus www.nasa.gov/sdo - NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory victoria.rasc.ca – click on Astronomy Day for copies of today’s presentations