Blogging on EARTH: Rarity the only reason for Venus transit fever?

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:16:40 -0400

Venus transits the sun on June 5, 2012. ©Tom Ruen, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

If you are reading this, chances are good that you also read one or more stories leading up to yesterday’s transit of Venus across the face of the sun. Perhaps you even followed #VenusTransit on Twitter. If you didn’t already know, you likely learned that the transit is akin to a solar eclipse — when the moon crosses directly between Earth and the sun, temporarily blocking part or all of the latter from our view — with the caveat that Venus only blacks out a small dot of the sun because of its distance from Earth.

Venus in transit to the transit

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:18:52 -0400

Ice ring around the sun with Venus. Taken 4 June 2012 at 2:37 EDT in Port Charlotte, Fla., with an iPhone 4. Elizabeth Talley

5 June 2012 - Reader Elizabeth Talley snapped an iPhone photo of an ice ring around the sun yesterday afternoon in Port Charlotte, Fla., and unexpectedly also captured this image of Venus as it heads toward this evening’s rare celestial event — a transit of the sun. The seven-hour transit, during which the planet will appear as a small black disk moving across the solar face, will begin at 6:03 p.m. EDT and can be viewed with appropriate safety measures or online. The last transit of Venus occurred in 2004, but the next will not occur until 2117, making today's transit the (likely) last viewing opportunity for anyone alive today.

Transit on EARTH Magazine

Blogging on EARTH: Rarity the only reason for Venus transit fever?

Venus in transit to the transit