02 July 2004

A Venusian encore

Leonarda Fucili

More images of the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun on 8 June 2004 have arrived at The Citizen Scientist from readers in Rome and Nepal (see News article). This stunning image is how the transit appeared from Rome. It was sent by Leonarda Fucili, a teacher of mathematics, science and astronomy and a member of the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE).

This image portrays in crisp detail so much more than what has been described as merely a dot on the Sun. Dots and blotches on the solar disk are sun spots, not planets in orbit around a star.

Click on this image to enlarge it. Stare at Venus for a few moments until it lifts off the screen of your monitor and takes its proper place suspended in space between you and the star behind it. Only in this way can you grasp the essence, if not the science, of this exceedingly rare astronomical event.