18 June 2004

The transit of Venus

Mark Streitman received this letter about his feature article on the transit of Venus (The Citizen Scientist 11 June 2004) from Ala'a H. Jawad of Kuwait City, who has given permission for its publication.

G'Day,

I read with a great deal of interest your report on the transit of
Venus, and enjoyed looking at the pictures you took of the event. I
followed your discussion on the black drop phenomena with interest, since I also looked for it when I took a series of pictures of the transit from my home in Kuwait City. My pictures appear at the following sites:

Beginning of the transit:
http://homepagemac.com/aljawad/PhotoAlbum9.html

End of the transit:
http://homepage.mac.com/aljawad/PhotoAlbum10.html

My results too are too close to call, and this subject is debated by
the astronomical community as illustrated by Sky & Telescope
magazine:

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1277_1.asp

The transit of Venus was well worth the wait. I've seen and
photographed earlier transits of Mercury, the last one just about a
year ago, but Venus takes the prize for a true once-in-a lifetime
event. No other astronomical event is this rare, with the possible
exception of viewing a total solar eclipse from the same geographical location. Also, when considering the heritage behind the event historically, it once formed the basis for measuring the Astronomical Unit [the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun]. In today's world an equivalent project might be launching the Hubble telescope to gauge the age of the universe or building a super accelerator to simulate the early universe.

BTW, it was pleasant to read of an astronomical observation conducted on the parking lot of a mall - in New Jersey! This brought to my mind some precious memories from my school days, for I obtained my university degree from New Jersey. Your pictures remind me of either the Monmouth or the Woodbridge Mall - although that is just a guess on my part :-)

Thank you for sharing you experience with the world, and lets look
forward to 2012!

Sincerely,

Ala'a H. Jawad

The next transit of Venus will occur in 2012. Hopefully Ala'a H. Jawad will be among those who submit their reports to The Citizen Scientist. Editor.

Preserving archeological artifacts

Editor,

Some of us are interested in history and pre-history, but others have interests which destroy history. We have a local television station which broadcasts a program that sometimes appraises the cash value of archeological artifacts that have been removed from their original sites, are owned by individuals, and are unavailable for research and publication as a part of history. An internet oranization allows people to bid on and purchase similar kinds of artifacts.

Politicians are not interested enough to pass relevant laws. However, laws may only increase the popular desire to own illegal artifacts. Accordingly, I wish to contribute to a lobby or group of persons interested in history and in preserving history, as well as preserving future discoveries of graves, temples and art      http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0312_0314_mayamurals.html

Perhaps cash rewards can be offered for reporting newly-discovered sites. Cash can be paid, no questions asked, for photographs of artifacts in situ, before moving, disturbing, removal, or sale of artifacts. A  program can be developed to pay people to report owned artifacts.  Since there is not enough storage space in universities or museums for all such artifacts, owners can be allowed to keep their artifacts, and to borrow others, if they wish. Artifacts could be catalogued on the Internet, along with photographs.  Owners would be paid to make available to researchers temporary use of artifacts. This program would apply to fossils, ancient human remains, ancient historical items, but could exclude recent art and artifacts.

Glen  Hemerick 
ghemerick@harbornet.com

Mr. Lemerick's letter is an important reminder about the status of archaeological objects, and his idea regarding owned artifacts, which might have been collected long before the enactment of relevant laws, is interesting. Many countries, including the United States, have strict laws concerning the unauthorized removal, possession and sale of many kinds of archaeological objects. Editor.                        

Time machine effect of the speed of light

Editor,

The June 11th bulletin had this editor's note regarding the time
machine effect of an optical telescope 1,000,000 light years away:

"An observer at the telescope would see Earth as it appeared when
photons of light emitted from the Earth reached the telescope. Thus, if the telescope is 1,000,000 light years from Earth, the observer would indeed see the Earth as it appeared 1,000,000 years earlier. However, the observer would have to be at the distant telescope and not on Earth. For unless there is a method of sending signals from the distant telescope to Earth at much faster than the speed of light, signals sent by the telescope to Earth would also require 1,000,000 light years to arrive, thus canceling any time machine effect. Editor."

Here there is an obvious error. The 1,000,000 years required to get
the observations back to Earth would not cancel the effect, they would double it!

Scott Palmer