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| This is cool, a bird gets caught in the shot as well.. |
Today I saw the Transit of Venus.The Transit of Venus is when you see Venus crossing over the Sun from Earth. It is a similar principle to a Lunar Eclipse, but since the Moon is so much closer it appears to blot out the whole Sun, whereas Venus, millions of more more kilometres away, appears as a small black dot. Venus' orbit around the Sun takes almost 225 days- as opposed to Earth's orbit of 365 days. Each respective orbit is a year in terms of the pertaining planet. On average, Venus gets caught between Earth and Sun every 584 days..but to actually SEE it make a path in front of the Sun is a different story. That is where the Transit of Venus comes in. Venus and Earth can line up as a straight point A to B line many times, but the further 'C' point of the Sun must line up as well. As well, orbits are never perfectly circular and 'flat' in space. There are more elliptical (or oval like) and some 'up and down' offset can also factor in. To further clarify the mechanics of this observe the following diagram:
That is why to see the Transit of Venus, you must wait as long as more than a hundred years!! Transits tend to occur in cyclical time patterns of one transit eight years after the first, then the next transit about 121 years later, then the next after that about 105 years later. If you want to see the Transit, a telescope or type of magnifier is recommended. Also, don't look at the Sun with your bare eyes dummy!! You need special solar glasses. Maybe score some from your nearest gaggle of astronomy nerds or search for them online as 'solar glasses', 'eclipse glasses' etc. I think once I score me some I'll start staring at the sun all the time just for fun..
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| This is a sort of time-lapse image to show you the pathway of Venus across the Sun.. |
