1. Transit of Venus, 2004 David E. Fields

2. D. E. Fields What is the transit of Venus? A transit of Venus occurs when Venus crosses the sun, as seen from earth. Only six such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope (1631,1639, 1761,1769, 1874 and 1882) We will observe the transit of Venus from TAO on June 8, 2004

3. D. E. Fields Jeremiah Horrocks Watching the Transit of Venus in 1631

4. D. E. Fields Afbeelding van den weg der planeet Venus Afbeelding van den weg der planeet Venus Nicholas Ypey, 1761.

5. D. E. Fields Report by B. Franklin in 1769

6. D. E. Fields Reanimating the 1882 Transit of Venus In late 1882, Massachusetts astronomer David Peck Todd traveled to California to photograph the transit of Venus from the summit of Mount Hamilton, where a solar photographic telescope waited among the stacks of bricks and timbers from which Lick Observatory was rising. As the transit unfolded on December 6th, Todd obtained a superb series of plates under perfect skies. His 147 glass negatives were carefully stored in the mountain vault, but as astronomers turned to other techniques for determining the scale of the solar system.

7. D. E. Fields

8. Local Sunrise, Phases 3 and 4 Sunrise (UT) Egress Alt Egress Alt h m h m s ° h m s ° 10:17 11:06:08 8 11:26:10 12

9. D. E. Fields TAO Visibility – we have trees.

10. D. E. Fields Global visibility and cloudiness

11. D. E. Fields Percent Frequency of Cloud Cover at mid-transit (08h UT) Average Weather Statistics for June North America Location Clear Scattered Broken Overcast Boston, MA 19.2 22.8 18.5 39.5 Washington, DC 23.3 22.0 21.0 33.6 Atlanta, GA 33.9 22.1 16.9 27.0 Miami, FL 16.9 49.9 20.8 12.4 New Orleans, LA 37.7 36.4 16.1 9.8 Nashville, TN 36.3 24.1 16.7 22.9

12. D. E. Fields Visit TAO Saturday afternoon, June 5 at 1500h (3:00 PM) for work party And Tuesday morning June 8 at 0630 h (6:30 AM)