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THE VENUSVOORDEZON.NL DUTCH TRANSIT WEBSITE has archived some spectacular streaming videos and images from the June 8 Transit and offers a comprehensive list of international links to websites with videos and images of the Transit from observatories all around the globe. |
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Live Webcast Transit of Venus from Athens, Greece June 8, 2004 (PST) The Live @ Exploratorium crew will travel to the National Observatory of Greece, outside Athens, for a clear view of this amazing and rare occurrence. Webcasts will begin with the point of first contact. As the transit unfolds over the hours, we will revisit the phenomenon through a series of shorter Webcasts, to capture the succession of Venus across the face of the Sun. Watch as we explore the role of past transits in the history of astronomy and how the Venus Transit was used to calculate the distance from the Earth to the Sun—called the Astronomical Unit. The program will present cutting-edge research on Sun-Venus and Sun-Earth interactions, and how NASA plans to use similar transits to discover planets circling stars in distant solar systems. Go to this page to see the Transit webcast LIVE. The Transit itself will begin at approx. 5:20PM NZ time. |
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The Venus Transit: THE AU CHALLENGE In NASA CONNECT: Venus Transit, students will learn about the importance of using scale models to represent the size and distance of objects in the solar system and beyond. They will be introduced to the astronomical unit (AU), the baseline distance from the Earth to the Sun, which astronomers use to determine the relative distances from the Earth to other planets, stars, asteroids, and objects in space. They will also discover fascinating facts about the Venus Transit, a celestial and historical event, which helped astronomers determine the scale of the solar system. By conducting inquiry-based and web activities, students will make connections between NASA research and the mathematics, science, and technology they learn in their classrooms. Host, Jennifer Pulley, and NASA scientists will pose inquiry-based questions throughout the program. These questions allow the students to investigate, discover, and critically think about the concepts being presented. Thanks to NASA CONNECT™, we have prepared a 7 part version of the NASA video available for viewing here. Students and teachers can view the designated segments so students can answer and discuss the inquiry-based questions. For more information about inquiry-based learning, visit the NASA CONNECT™ web site. This hands-on activity Guide is teacher created and aligned with the National Council of the Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards and the National Science Education (NSES) Standards. Students will use measurement, ratios, and graphing to construct a model of the solar system and determine the relationship of each planet to the Sun. They will explore the scales needed to represent the size of the planets and the distances to the Sun. We offer this downloadable document courtesy of NASA Connect. |
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The European Southern Observatory website. This major site describes the VT-2004 project which aims at transforming curiosity into knowledge and interest in science through a broad set of activities. It includes useful background, frequently asked questions and international contacts. |
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The US-based Transit of Venus website. This major site will guide you to safe viewing; interactive education and hands-on activities; global observing programs for students; background information and tutorials; insights into historical endeavors and the adventures of explorers; the role of spacecraft and the search for extra-solar planets; and miscellaneous items relating to the transit of Venus. There are direct links to some of the main sections of this website: This FAQ section provides a thorough introduction to Transits - What is a transit of Venus? When is the transit of Venus? Is the transit of Venus visible from my location? Is it safe to view the transit of Venus? How long does it last? What can I expect to see? When else have transits been seen? Why is a transit of Venus so rare? What is the significance of a transit? What can students do? Where do I get more information? What have others said through the ages? |
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Sun-Earth Day This is NASA's main educational website for the Transit of Venus developed to provide resources and opportunities for participation in the fourth Sun-Earth Day. Its goal is to involve as much of the student population and the public in this event as possible and to help them understand the immense importance and excitement surrounding this and previous transits. Live streaming of the transit will also be available on this website in June 2004. |
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Earth Day Webcast: The Search for Another Earth The webcast of an interactive discussion with NASA scientists about how the search for another Earth outside our solar system might help us learn about our own past and future. This hour long video features interviews with astronomers and videos about the planet Venus as compared to Earth, as well as a look at how transits of other planets around far distant suns are one way of finding planets orbiting others suns in our galaxy. Also check out the Planet Quest Interactive Gallery for many other NASA programmes looking at the extra-solar planet search. |
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The Sun-Earth Viewer The Sun-Earth Viewer is a new website about the Sun presented by the UC Berkeley Center for Science Education at the Space Sciences Laboratory. The Images section offers extreme Ultraviolet Imaging photo images of the sun taken from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite. The Illustrations section has detailed graphics revealing the physics of the sun. The Visualisations section has a line-up of great animated videos showing the sun's activity and its effect on planets in the Solar System in motion. The Interviews section offers some great video presentations by some of the world's top astronomers including a special section on Transits of Venus. |
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The Royal Observatory, Greenwich The UK Royal Observatory was founded on 22 June 1675 by King Charles II and was built specifically to help solve the problem of finding longitude - one's exact position east and west - while at sea and out of sight of land. The Greenwich Time Ball was erected in 1833 as one of the world's first visual time signals - the ball drops daily at 1300 and was used by sailors on the Thames to check marine chronometers. Today the Royal Observatory at Greenwich is a centre of excellence for modern astronomy - you can ask their astronomers a question, browse frequently asked questions and read the latest astronomy news. |
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The NASA Eclipse Home Page This page from the is continually expanding and strives to be the ultimate resource for online information about eclipses. |
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Occultations These occur when one celestial body passes in front of another. These frequent and intriguing events are fun to watch, and provide an important way for amateur astronomers to make significant discoveries about objects within our own Solar System as well as the stars beyond. This website exists to promote and encourage occultation observing in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific. |
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The "Black Drop" Effect This addresses in detail the "black drop" phenomenon at internal contact which has confounded astronomers for years. This site provides extensive historic and contemporary references and examples. |
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The Black Drop This Abstract details the physical cause of the "black drop" effect.Source - B. E. Schaefer - University of Texas - Austin at 2001 AAS meeting. |
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The Transit of Venus - Essay This site contains an essay on the transit of Venus by Douglas O'Neil from Pennsylvania, USA. |
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Apply Halley's Method in 2004 This site demonstrates how to compute the mean equatorial solar parallax online from your own and others' observations of the 2004 transit of Venus employing Halley's method; courtesy of Steven M. van Roode. |
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Calculation of the Solar Parallax Source - Institute of Atmospheric & Climate Science - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - Zurich This detailed mathematical site from Observations by Heinz Blatter "gives an overview of the geometry and temporal patterns of transits, a rough estimate of the solar parallax and the corresponding error estimate. The possible and necessary corrections due to the rotation of the Earth, the eccentricities of the orbits of Venus and Earth and the inclination of the orbit of Venus are given as well." |
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Solar Transits: Tools of Discovery Source - US multimedia company "Space Holdings This site features a range of features on US Space projects, including an article about transits on the Space.com website by Edna DeVore, Director of Education and Public Outreach. "Astronomically, we observe transits when a planet crosses the face of the Sun, or an extra-solar planet crosses the face of its parent star". |
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International Astronomical Union's Conference 2004 The International Astronomical Union's Conference: "Transits of Venus: New Views of the Solar System and Galaxy" will be held in Preston, Lancashire, UK from 7-11 June 2004. This meeting will link modern research topics on: high precision determination of the solar parallax; distances in the Solar System and in the Galaxy; precise determination of the motions of planets, realisation of a dynamical time scale and fluctuations in Earth's rotation. It will examine critically the remaining uncertainties in currently available parallaxes, how they can be further reduced, and the implications for stellar physics and Galactic structure studies. This will include the galactic distance scale, and will look at the future of astrometry from the ground and especially from space, including Gaia and Jasmine. |
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