Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant

<$BlogRSDUrl$> Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant

Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Internet Happenings, Events and Sources

Sunday, May 30, 2004

Transit of Venus

1) Transit of Venus 2004
http://www.venustransit.ie/

2) The Venus Transit 2004
http://www.vt-2004.org/

3) Transit of Venus
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/index_vthome.htm

4) 2004 and 2012 Transits of Venus
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/venus0412.html

5) Transit of Venus, June 8th, 2004
http://didaktik.physik.uni-essen.de/~backhaus/VenusProject.htm

6) Project Venus 2004
http://eclipse.astroinfo.org/transit/venus/project2004/

7) The Rarest Eclipse: Transit of Venus
http://www.exploratorium.com/venus/index.html

8) The 1882 Transit of Venus: Observations from Wellington, South Africa
http://www.saao.ac.za/~wpk/tov1882/tovwell.html

The Transit of Venus is similar to a solar eclipse, where -- from the perspective on Earth -- Venus passes in front of the Sun. This event does not happen very often. In fact, no one alive today has experienced this phenomenon, which will take place on June 8 and will be visible for most of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

First, the Armagh Planetarium created a great, expansive informational site all about the Transit of Venus (1). Users can find basic facts, observing information, histories of past transits, and much more. Next, the European Southern Observatory presents the VT-2004 project's aim to gain knowledge and encourage public interest in the event (2). Users can observe Venus's progression towards the transit with the daily images from April 17, 2004 to present news updates. Educators can discover transit-related activities and educational materials. The third site, created by NASA, discusses the details of the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum and San Francisco's Exploratorium's live webcast of the Transit (3). The site supplies enjoyable, educational materials for students, educators, museums, scientists, and amateur astronomers. The next site, also created by NASA, provides an introduction to the Venus Transits that will take place June 2004 and 2012 (4). Visitors can find helpful figures and text about the geographic visibility of the events. The site offers an observer's handbook as well as a discussion about the predictions of the event. Next, Professor Backhaus presents a project where schools, amateur astronomers, and universities will collaborate to gather transit data and learn about observing (5). Users can discover the six parts of the project as well as learn how to participate in the worldwide endeavor. The sixth site also discusses a Venus Transit project (6). Endorsed by the Astronomical Association of Zurich, this project's goals are to process data collected by amateur astronomers by different observation methods, to act as a data exchange center, and to determine the astronomical unit. Next, the Exploratorium furnishes general information about the Transit, its history, how viewers observe it, what it looks like, and why it is an important event (7). Users can find out about the live webcast that will begin on June 7, 2004 from Athens, Greece. Educators can find student activities developed to integrate discussions into the classroom. Lastly, Willie Koorts, an employee at the South African Astronomical Observatory, recounts the observations of scientists in Africa of the last transit of Venus (8). The site contains many historical photographs along with informational diagrams and figures.[From The NSDL Scout Report for the Physical Sciences, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2003. http://scout.wisc.edu/]

posted by Marcus Zillman | 4:25 AM

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