Thursday, May 31, 2012

TRANSIT OF VENUS - 2012

What is a transit ?

A transit is the observed passage of Mercury or Venus across the disk of the sun.  While ‘transiting’, the planet would appear as a black spot.

The word “transit” means passage or movement — in this case, across the face of the sun.


Eclipse, when two objects of comparable sizes block each other, occultation, when a body with greater angular size blocks an object with smaller angular size and transits, when an object with lesser angular size come in between the observer and an object with greater angular size are some of the celestial wonders that naturally occur due to movements of the celestial bodies.

One such cosmic event, the Venus Transit- passing of Venus in front of Sun’s disk will take place on the coming 06 June 2012. The transit of Venus occurs in pairs with one that took place on 08 June 2004. The next pair of transit of Venus will occur in 2117 and 2125, making it truly once in life time opportunity.

The first recorded observation of the transit of Venus was done by the British Priest, Jeremiah Horrocks, in 1639. Jeremiah Horrocks was the first who used his observations to measure the Earth to Sun distance, called the Astronomical Unit (AU). The upcoming Transit of Venus- 06 June 2012 will be a life time opportunity for everyone on the Earth. In India, on 06 June 2012, transit will commence well before sun rises and one can observe the phenomena on Sun’s projected image or through approved solar filters supplied by authorised agencies from morning hours to mid morning.

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