4 June 2004

The transit of Venus occurs Tuesday, 8 June 2004

Forrest M. Mims III

A transit is when one astronomical body passes before another. One of the most important transits will occur on Tuesday, 8 June 2004, when the planet Venus crosses the face of the Sun.

Transits of venus are very rare. Indeed, no one alive today has ever seen one. That's because the events occur in pairs, each of which is more than a century apart. The last transit was in 1882. The one paired with the 8 June event will occur on 6 June 2012. The one following that will not occur until 2117.

The transit of Venus will be observed best from Europe, Asia and Africa. The end of the event will be observable from much of South America and the Eastern United States.

Many web sites describe the transit and how best to safely observe it. The ultimate site for eclipses and transits is Fred Espenak's Goddard Space Flight Center's Eclipse Home Page The page on the transit of Venus is at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/transit04.html .

The European Southern Observatory also has an outstanding transit page. It's at www.vt-2004.org/ . Especially good is the teacher's guide at www.vt-2004.org/Education/vt-tg.pdf .

To avoid injury to your eyes, always use safe viewing practices when observing events associated with the Sun. Never observe the Sun directly or through binoculars or telescopes without appropriate filters. These filters and other observing tips are described on the web sites above and on various astronomy web sites.