Sky-gazers using special solar viewing glasses will be able to see Venus as a black disk passing across the sun over a period of more than six hours.
“From an astronomical standpoint, it doesn't happen very often,” said Ed Megill, director of the Santa Rosa Junior College Planetarium.
“These transits happen in pairs 105 years apart.”
The event will be far less dramatic than the annular solar eclipse that occurred May 13, which noticeably darkened the sky.
And it will be preceded Monday by a partial lunar eclipse, in which a third of the moon will fall within the earth's shadow at 4 a.m.,
coloring that third of the moon with a reddish-brown color.
However, the transit of Venus holds a special place in astronomy because it is steeped in historical importance.
“During the transit of Venus of 1857, with the observations made at various places around the world and basic trigonometry,
the basic distance to the sun from the earth was established,” said Lynn Anderson, president of the Sonoma County Astronomical Society.
Venus is the second planet from the sun and about the size of earth. As the brightest body in the night sky aside from the moon,
it is often referred to as the Morning Star and the Evening Star.
Transits of Venus occur in pairs that are separated by more than a century.
A transit occurred in June 2004, but it was only visible on the other side of the earth. For this transit, Northern California will have a ringside seat.
The next transit will not occur until December 2117 and December 2125.
The transit on Tuesday will begin at about 3:15 p.m. and continue until about 9:30 p.m., which is an hour after the sun is to set in Sonoma County.
Because Venus is so small in relationship to the sun, there will be public viewing programs set up using binoculars and telescopes fitted with the proper dark filters.
As will all solar observations, people are warned to use the correct solar viewing glasses or extremely dark welding glass.
“The best way is through a telescope,” said George Loyer, president of the Ferguson Observatory at Sugarloaf State Park.
“The disk of Venus is so small it is a challenge to see without some magnification.”
The observatory will be open from 1 p.m. to when the sun drops behind the mountains west of the observatory, about 6:30 p.m.
The observatory also will have solar viewing glasses for sale.
At the SRJC Planetarium, telescopes and a projection viewing device will be set up in the parking lot to the west of the building, Megill said.
It will open at 3 p.m. and close about 8:30 p.m., when the sun sets.
Piner High School teacher Kurt Kruger will have telescopes set up in the playing field next to the student parking lot between 3 and 8 p.m.
The Exploratorium in San Francisco will also have a live broadcast of the transit on its Internet site, www.exploratorium.edu,
from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.
첫댓글 숙이님! 전 영어를 모르니 우리말로 번역해주시면 감사하겠읍니다. 제가 미국은 많이 가보았지만 영어 공부를 못해서리... ㅎㅎㅎ
좋은 하루되세요~~~
맨위의것에 내사것! 지금현제의 라이브방송이예요.(생방송)
오늘후에는 볼수있는게 105년후이니 오늘 노는개보아요.
(과천=연합뉴스) 유용석 기자 = 6일 오전 8시 50분경 금성이 태양을 통과하며 일부분을 가리는 금성일식이 경기도 과천 국립과학관에서 관측되고 있다. 다음 금성일식은 105년 후에나 볼 수 있다. 2012.6.6
태양에 잇는 가만점이 금성이네요 ㅎㅎㅎ
숙이님! 넘 아시는 것도 많네요~~~ 좋은 정보 고마워요~~~
그런일이 잇었군요 단파통신이 혼란을 일으켜도
너무나 귀한일이니 오히려 고마웠을것같내요
지금도 내사플레이는 되는데, 내컴이 넘약하네요