1. Heavenly Passage.
- Author
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Cowen, Ron
- Subjects
- *
TRANSIT of Venus (Planet) , *PLANETARY observations , *INNER planets , *VENUS (Planet) , *SUN , *SPACE photography , *ASTRONOMICAL instruments , *TRANSIT-instruments , *ASTRONOMY , *ASTRONOMERS - Abstract
The article discusses the passing of Venus over the face of the sun for the first time in 122 years, as seen in the United States and Greece by professional and amateur skywatchers. Among the sky watchers in Nantucket, MA, was veteran astronomer Dorrit Hoffleit, former director of the island's Maria Mitchell Observatory. Cataracts now cloud Hoffleit's vision, but the transit loomed bright enough for Hoffleit to enjoy. At age 97, she was probably the oldest astronomer to view the event, yet even she was born 25 years too late to have viewed the planet's last such passage, in 1882. Astronomers in centuries past embarked on hazardous journeys around the globe to chase the transit of Venus. Observations of a transit of Venus in the 18th century provided the first evidence for an atmosphere of a planet other than Earth. Moreover, by comparing the times that Venus entered and exited the sun's disk at far-flung locations, scientists could calculate the planet's distance to the sun and thereby determine one of the era's most sought-after cosmic details: the size of the solar system. INSET: Island Astronomy.
- Published
- 2004
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