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The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence. As seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible.
Transit of Venus
Next transit of Venus: 6 Jun 2012.
Links to Transit of Venus sites:
About the transit of Venus - 2004: On June 8, 2004 at sunrise, people on the East Coast witnessed the rare movement of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun. This event has not been seen since 1882. Venus will over 67 million miles from the Sun and about 26 million miles from Earth--exactly between the Sun and Earth. Observers will see its small black disk "transit" across the Sun. There have been only five of these "transits of Venus" sighted by humans since the possibility for such events was first realized in 1639 by British astronomer and cleric Jeremiah Horrocks. During the last transit on December 6, 1882, which made newspaper headlines all around the world, dozens of scientific expeditions were sent out across the world to observe it. Its importance to astronomers was that, by careful observation, they could use its motion and parallax to triangulate the distance between the Sun and Earth, thereby setting the scale for the entire solar system and the cosmos beyond. The 1882 transit of Venus gave astronomers the answer to this distance as 92,797,000 miles with an uncertainty of only 59,700 miles!
To Transit of Venus Index --|-- To Transit of Mercury Index
September 04, 2003. Article: Solar Transits: Tools of Discovery By Edna DeVore -- Most people think of the local bus or tram service when transit is mentioned. But talk to an astronomer, ... we observe transits when a planet crosses the face of the Sun, or an extrasolar planet crosses the face of its parent star. ... During the 21st century, Mercury will transit the Sun only 14 times even though its orbit carries it past the Earth about every 115 days. That means that out of almost 3200 possible line-ups between Earth-Mercury-Sun in this century, only 14 times does Mercury lie along our LOS to the Sun resulting in a transit. Venus is farther from the Sun than Mercury, and the opportunity to see a transit of Venus is much more rare. In fact, over the next two centuries, there will be only four transits of Venus across the Sun: June 8, 2004, June 6, 2012, December 11, 2117 and December 8, 2125.
One of the major astronomical highlights of 2004 was the transit of Venus, an event that had last occurred in 1882. The complete transit was visible across Europe and most of Asia. The next transit of Venus will be June 6, 2012. Here are resources for information:
- http://www.transitofvenus.org/
- 2004 and 2012 Transits of Venus, by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC. Web page based on a poster presented at the conference Scientific Frontiers in Research on Extrasolar Planets Carnegie Institution, 2002 June 18-21
- Venus Transit 2004—Sun-Earth Day. NASA's plans for the transit, coordinated by the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum.
- The Transit of Venus: Where to See It, article by Paul Deans at Sky and Telescope website.
- Chuck Bueter's Transit of Venus page on the Paper Plate Astronomy website. Also Transit of Venus planetarium show. Members of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA), receive a copy of the FREE planetarium program, The Transit of Venus, provided by the Toyota Tapestry Grant received by Chuck Bueter and Art Klinger. Non-can GLPA members can purchase the Transit of Venus planetarium program also. Contact Chuck Bueter at bueter@transitofvenus.org
- Chasing Venus—Teacher Resource Page. Lesson plans from the Smithsonian Institution; they also will have an exhibit in Washington, D.C.
- AAS paper on Transit of Venus: [12.01] Transit of Venus--2004: A Cosmic Opportunity, K. E. Kissell (University of Maryland and Kissell Associates), R. M. Genet (The Union Institute and University and Orion Institute)
- European Southern Observatory (ESO) Transit page
- Transit of Venus and ISS. Somewhere, someone will get to see the International Space Station transit the sun concurrent with the transit of Venus. Imagine looking at the sun while watching the transit when--zoom!--the ISS passes through your field of view.
Transit of Venus March
The Transit of Venus March, written by John Phillip Sousa in 1883, will be available as a music file at the Sun Earth Connection Education Forum Venus Transit Pages. Music score may also be available.
The Transit of Venus March was one of John Philip Sousa's earliest marches written while he was still a new conductor for the U.S. Marine Band - a commission that he had just accepted in 1880. Following a difficult year of recruiting new band members, and firing those that didn't satisfy his exacting musical standards, his band made its debut White House performance on January 1, 1881. Sousa's popularity as the 'March King' grew steadily in the years to follow. His better-known 'Stars and Stripes Forever' march was written in 1889 and was declared the official U.S. National March by an act of Congress in 1987. John Philip Sousa was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to write a march to honor the great American physicist Prof. Joseph Henry who had died on May 13, 1878. The march was to be played as a processional for the planned unveiling of the commemorative statue of Henry. The statue was to be placed in front of the Smithsonian Institution in 1883.
The December 6, 1882 transit of Venus was evidently such a striking event for the general public that Sousa chose to base the new march on this rare transit. Some scholars also think that there may have been much more involved in this march than simple 'background music'. According to author David Ovason in his book 'The Secret Architecture of our Nation's Capital' (1999) the Transit of Venus March was to be performed at a specific time and date: April 19, 1883 at 4:00 PM. At this propitious hour, the planet Venus, invisible to the participants, would have completed its arc in the sky and would be setting in the west. Meanwhile, Virgo would rising in the east, and Jupiter would be directly over head. Venus was associated with the element copper. Joseph Henry had used large quantities of copper to create his powerful electromagnets, which at that time operated some of America's newest technology. The connection of the 'passing of Henry' commemorated by the statue, and the 'passing of Venus' in its western setting may have seemed like a fitting mystical bond between two separate worlds: human and cosmic.
In preparation for NASA's educational programs in 2004, which will feature a live web cast of the entire event from Spain, Dr. Sten Odenwald, an astronomer at the NASA Goddard Space flight Center, examined the documents at the Library of Congress related to previous transits of Venus. He also worked with Ms. Susan Clermont to locate any music that may have been inspired by this rare celestial event. Among a collection of sheet music, they located Sousa's Transit of Venus March. Mr. Loris Schissel, a Sousa expert and the conductor of the Virginia Grand Military Band, was then contacted to inquire about the circumstances of this march.
During the summer of 2003, Raytheon ITSS commissioned Mr. Schissel to re-orchestrate the original copy of Sousa's march for modern instruments. Unfortunately, Sousa's original manuscript for this march was destroyed in a flood of Sousa's house, which also destroyed many other of his earlier manuscripts as well. The modern re-orchestration was made from published copies of this march made during the late-1800's. Mr. Schissel was kind enough, not only to translate the older score into modern clefs and keys, but to re-perform this march on September 13th, 2003 at the Schlesinger Concert Hall in Alexandria, Virginia so that others might enjoy this march. The last known performance of this march before then was at a concert at the White House during the summer of 1883.
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