Everything you need to know: Venus transit on June 5-6 | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky Everything you need to know: Venus transit on June 5-6 By Bruce McClure in Astronomy Essentials | June 5, 2012 Venus appeared as a small dark dot crossing sun’s face for last time this century on June 5-6, 2012. Last transit of Venus in our lifetimes! Transit times and more here. June 2012 guide to the five visible planets Venus’ transit day has passed – the last transit of Venus for the 21st century! The brightest planet, Venus, passed right in front of the sun for nearly seven hours on June 5-6, 2012, but, from many places, the transit was in progress at sunrise or sunset. During the transit, Venus appeared in silhouette as a small, dark dot moving in front of the solar disk. This exceedingly rare astronomical event – a transit of Venus – won’t happen again until December 11, 2117. However, a transit of Mercury will take place on May 9, 2016.

Gallery: Venus transit June 5-6, 2012 As with any solar eclipse, you must have proper eye protection to view a planet transiting across the sun. Click on the following link to hear why eclipses glasses and welder’s glass might not be best for viewing a solar eclipse, to learn how to make an indirect viewing system, and to find a webcast: What’s the best way to view the June 5-6 transit of Venus safely? Transit of Venus June 8, 2004. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons Who saw the June 5-6, 2012 transit of Venus? Depending on where you live worldwide, the transit of Venus happened on June 5 or 6, 2012. If you live in the world’s Western Hemisphere (North America, northwestern South America, Hawaii, Greenland or Iceland), the transit started in the afternoon hours on June 5. In the world’s Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia or New Zealand), the transit was first seen at sunrise or in the morning hours on June 6. Map of where June 5-6, 2012 Venus transit will be seen.

Image Credit: Michael Zeiler, eclipse-maps.com Transit Computer giving the Universal Time for your sky The chart above shows the times of the 2012 transit of Venus in Universal Time (essentially the same as UTC). To know when any astronomical event occurs in your part of the world, you need to translate the times to your time zone. Here’s how to do that: How do I translate Universal Time into my time? Be careful and watch for the time of sunset or sunrise in your location. In the continental United States, for example, the greatest transit took place just before sunset for most of us. During last month’s solar eclipse, which was also at sunset for U.S. locations, many people told us they missed out because their viewing location was hindered by trees or tall buildings. Don’t let that happen to you! If you’re in the continental U.S., be sure to find a viewing location with a clear view of the horizon. To know the time of sunset or sunrise for your location, try this site, which will let you create a custom sunrise/sunset calendar: Sunrise/sunset times for your sky From the mainland U.S., the West Coast saw more hours of the transit than the East Coast did.

Here in Austin, Texas, we got to see the first half of the transit, but the second half took place after sunset – or when the sun was beneath our horizon. In the world’s Eastern Hemisphere, it was as equally important to find a level eastern horizon on June 6. For Africa, Europe, much of Asia and western Australia, the sun rose (on June 6) as the transit was taking place. Elsewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere, the transit started in the morning hours on June 6. More great links on 2012 transit of Venus Contact I: ingress exterior – Venus’ first contact with sun’s exterior Contact II: ingress interior – Venus first seen totally within solar disk Greatest transit: transit center – center of transit Contact III: egress interior – Venus last seen totally within solar disk Contact IV: egress exterior – Venus’ last contact with sun’s exterior The contact times (I, II, greatest transit, III and IV) on the above illustration are given in Universal Time. It is important to note that these times are for an imaginary observer at the Earth’s center – not the Earth’s surface.

So if you translate from Universal Time to the clock time in your time zone, it’ll give you a ballpark reference of your local transit times, which won’t be off by any more than a maximum of plus or minus seven minutes. Why is a transit of Venus so rare? The last transit of Venus was June 8, 2004. But don’t be fooled by that proximity in time. Transits of Venus are very rare, plus transits tend to occur in pairs. They occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of up to 121.5 years. Before 2004, the last pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882. Venus, the second planet outward from the sun and next planet inward from Earth, swings between the Earth and sun (at a point called inferior conjunction) five times every eight years, or one time in every 584 or so days.

(See the Diagram of Venus’ orbit around the sun below.) More often than not, Venus passes above or below the solar disk at inferior conjunction – that point in its orbit where Venus passes out Earth’s evening sky and into Earth’s morning sky. Diagram of Venus’ orbit around the sun Venus passes in between the Earth and sun at inferior conjunction Top: Venus at inferior conjunction not aligned with node; Bottom: Venus at inferior conjunction aligned with node. At inferior conjunction, Venus passes between the Earth and sun. If Venus and Earth revolved around the sun on the same plane, there would be five inferior conjunctions – and five transits – of Venus every eight years. However, Venus’ orbital plane is inclined to Earth’s orbital plane by 3.4o. Because the orbital planes of the two planets don’t quite mesh, a combination of factors is necessary for a transit of Venus to take place in Earth’s sky. For half of Venus’ orbit, Venus travels south of the Earth’s orbital plane, and for the other half of Venus’ orbit, Venus travels north of the Earth’s orbital plane. At two places in Venus’ orbit, Venus crosses the Earth’s orbital plane at points called nodes.

If Venus is going from south to north, it’s called an ascending node, or if going from north to south, it’s called a descending node. If Venus at inferior conjunction closely coincides with one of its nodes, then a transit of Venus is in the works. On June 5-6, 2012, Venus swings to inferior conjunction and sufficiently close to its descending node to present the last transit of Venus until December 11, 2117. Bottom line: Here’s everything you need to know about the last transit of Venus in this century on June 5-6, 2012. The exact date will depend on your hemisphere on Earth. During the transit, Venus will appear in silhouette as a small, dark dot moving in front of the solar disk. The next transit of Venus won’t be until December 11, 2117. This post has times of the transit, and links to tips for safe viewing and more.

Venus Transit 2012: Planet to Cross Face of Sun Wednesday, Last Time in 21st Century - ABC News ABC News Transit of Venus: Planet Crosses Face of Sun Tuesday By NED POTTER WATCH 2004: Transit of Venus 0 Shares Email Watch with care. Tuesday afternoon, U.S. time, we earthlings will be treated to the rare spectacle of a transit of Venus -- the heavens aligning so that the small black disc of the planet Venus marches slowly across the face of the sun. Transit of Venus. It sounds like the title of a romantic novel -- and, in fact, there have been a few over the years -- but instead it is a minor astronomical phenomenon. Venus, the second planet from the sun, orbits in almost the same plane Earth does -- almost but not exactly. Orbiting the sun once every 225 Earth-days, it often passes between us and the sun, but from our point of view, it usually appears to pass just above or below it. On Tuesday at 6:09 p.m. EDT, though, Earth, Venus and the sun will be in a straight line.

For the next six hours and 40 minutes (times will vary slightly depending on your location), it will slowly move from one side of the sun's disc to the other -- appearing, NASA says , as a black dot about 1/32 as wide as the sun itself. The best viewing will be from the Pacific, including Hawaii, Alaska, Japan and easternmost Asia. For the rest of the United States, the sun will set while the transit is still in progress. Perhaps that's just as well, because astronomers repeatedly warn how dangerous it is to look directly into the sun. It's better to look at an image projected through a telescope or pair of binoculars onto a flat surface. If you happen to be a welder, No. 14 welder's glass or darker is considered safe. NASA has compiled viewing advice you can find here , and will also have a webcast Tuesday afternoon and evening. One very simple viewer you can make is called a pinhole projector. Prick a tiny hole (several are better) in a piece of thick paper or cardboard, and let the sunlight passing through it fall on a second sheet.

You'll find that the pinhole acts as a tiny lens, projecting a just-big-enough image of the sun to show the tiny dot of Venus. "Don't let the requisite warnings scare you away from witnessing this singular spectacle!" they write. "You can experience the transit of Venus safely, but it is vital that you protect your eyes at all times with the proper solar filters." The astronomer Johannes Kepler was the first to calculate just when transits happen. Because of the complexities of orbital mechanics, there are two in a period of eight years -- the last was on June 8, 2004 -- followed by a break of more than a century. If it's cloudy on Tuesday, you'll have to hang on until December 10, 2117. 0 Shares Transit of Venus: your last chance to see it before 2117 | Science | The Guardian Transit of Venus: your last chance to see it before 2117 Rare journey will help scientists learn more about planets far beyond our solar system The last transit of Venus in front of the sun in 2004.

Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images Sunday 3 June 2012 10.19 EDT First published on Sunday 3 June 2012 10.19 EDT Close This article is 4 years old A small black dot will grace the face of the sun as it rises (over Europe) on Wednesday, when Venus makes a rare and historic journey across the burning disc of our parent star. Few people alive today will have another chance to witness the transit of Venus, as the laws of orbital mechanics do not bring the planets into position again until December 2117. In previous centuries, nations dispatched astronomers to their farthest territories to record the transit in progress. In doing so, they embarked on the first global scientific collaboration in history and answered the pressing question of the size of the solar system. This year's observations from powerful telescopes will help scientists learn more about planets far beyond our solar system, and may even help spot those with atmospheres that are similar to Earth's and capable of harbouring life.

To celebrate the event, national space agencies, universities and amateur astronomers will point telescopes at the sky and trace Venus's seven hours in the sun from 11.04pm on Tuesday until 5.55am BST the next morning. The transit occurs when Venus moves directly between the Earth and sun, an event that happens less than once a century. It takes place in pairs eight years apart (the first in this pair was in 2004). Only the final stages of the transit will be visible from Britain, and then only if skies are clear on Wednesday morning, when the sun rises at 4.46am in London and 4.30am in Edinburgh. The start of the transit will be visible from North and Central America and the north-western countries of South America. Parts of Asia and Australia will see the entire show. Despite the early start, the Royal Astronomical Society said enthusiasts across the UK had organised transit parties and viewings from Ayrshire to St Austell and County Antrim to Whitby. Members of Ayrshire Astronomical Society are heading for a remote location off an unmarked road with three telescopes to witness the spectacle.

The equipment needed to watch the transit safely has its own language, with Graham Longbottom, president of Ayrshire Astronomical Society, speaking of Colorado Hydrogen Alpha solar scopes and Baader-filtered white light scopes. Though Venus will be visible to the naked eye, observers should never look at the sun directly, and even with eclipse goggles only for a few minutes at a time. One way to watch the transit safely is to project an image of the sun on to a screen, using a telescope or binoculars. Subject to Scottish weather, Longbottom expects to watch the transit for two hours, though he is unsure how many will join him. "There is a lot of interest in astronomy at the moment as a result of TV coverage, but 4am on a Wednesday morning is likely to test the resolve of all but the really committed, and that includes society members," he said. The first observations of a transit of Venus came from Jeremiah Horrocks in Much Hoole, a tiny village in Lancashire. On 24 November 1639, Horrocks watched as the planet traversed the sun after projecting its image on to a sheet of paper through a small telescope. He died two years later aged only 22.

The scientific importance of the transit was made clear by Edmund Halley, Britain's second astronomer royal, who in 1716 called on nations to join forces and record the event from positions around the world. Timing the transit from different spots on Earth allowed astronomers to calculate the distance from our planet to the sun, and so work out the size of the solar system. Halley's essay was visionary, written nearly 50 years before the next transit was due in 1761. At the time, astronomers knew only relative distances in the solar system, for example, that Jupiter was five times further from the sun than Earth. Their best estimate of how far Earth lay from its star was 55m miles. "They didn't know the distance from Earth to the sun, and that was a base unit. It was like having a map without the scale," said Andrea Wulf, author of the 2012 book Chasing Venus: the Race to Measure the Heavens . "What was so different was that no observation on its own would work, they had to be paired up. You had to send astronomers to as many, and as far apart, places as possible," said Wulf.

"This was the first truly global international collaboration which lays the foundations of modern science." The path Venus takes across the face of the sun varies depending on where the transit is viewed from. Halley's method called for pairs of astronomers a known distance apart to time the start and end of the transit. Taken together, the astronomers used these figures to calculate the separation of the Earth and sun using trigonometry. The British sent James Cook on the Endeavour to witness the transit from Tahiti , where his crew became so enamoured with the locals they made only cursory notes on the event. Others fared worse. The French astronomer Guillaume le Gentil was barred entry to Pondicherry for the first transit and watched hopelessly from sea. He stayed in the area to watch the second transit in 1769, only for cloud to obscure his view. On returning home, he discovered he had lost his job, and his heirs had divided up his estate, giving him up for dead. Halley's plan was a success despite the hardships of those who set out to observe the transit. The astronomers shared their records and eventually arrived at a new measurement for the distance between Earth and the sun of 93m to 97m miles.

Today, the accepted distance is 92.96m miles. "The transit has this remarkable history, going back to Horrocks and the amazing efforts that were made to observe it in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was the first enterprise in big science," said Lord Rees of Ludlow, the astronomer royal. "Very careful measurements of what happens when the transit starts and ends may reveal that you can in principle learn something about the planet's atmosphere and such like, and about the atmosphere of the star itself," he added. Rees said it was unlikely he would watch the transit this year though. "Down here in the south we have even less chance of seeing it than in Scotland. And it's very early in the morning," he said. Key facts When does it happen? The last transit of Venus of the 21st century occurs on 5 and 6 June 2012 depending on where you are viewing from. The transit starts at 11.04pm BST, when it will be visible from the US. The final hour of the transit will be visible from the UK just before 5am BST on 6 June, clear skies permitting.

The transit will not happen again until December 2117. How long does the transit last? Venus takes nearly seven hours to cross the face of the sun, but the event is divided into four "contacts" that mark different phases of the transit. Venus makes first contact when it encroaches onto the disc of the sun. Twenty minutes later, on second contact, the planet will be fully silhouetted. On third contact, at 5.37am BST, Venus will beginto leave the sun, and the transit will be over on fourth contact at 5.55am BST. Where can I see it? The whole transit is visible from Alaska, and parts of northern Canada, and from New Zealand, much of Australia, Asia and Russia. In the US, the transit will be in progress as the sun sets on 5 June. In East Africa, Europe and Scandivia, the transit will be under way as the sun rises on 6 June. Much of South America and western Africa will not see the event. How can I watch it safely? Never look directly at the sun, it will damage your eyes.

You can use eclipse viewing glasses that carry a CE mark and are not damaged or worn, but only for a few minutes at a time. Venus is large enough to see with the naked eye and will appear as a spot about 1/32 the width of the sun. It is not safe to look at the sun through regular sunglasses. For a better view, use a small telescope or a pair of binoculars to project an image of the sun on to a screen. Can I watch online?

Alok Jha: This year's transit of Venus was an international social event, with millions in the UK also watching a BBC Horizon special Published: 6 Jun 2012 Astronomers say they hope rare planetary spectacle – the last for 105 years – will spark people's curiosity about universe Published: 6 Jun 2012 Planet's passing across the sun offers once-in-a-lifetime event for viewers around the world, not due to recur until 2117 Published: 5 Jun 2012 The Venus Transit in 2012 The Meaning of the Venus Transit in June 2012 by UK astrologer and author Alison Chester-Lambert What does it mean when Venus passes across the face of the Sun on June 5th and 6th? Spiritual and Technological Revolution actually..... That little black dot on the face of the Sun is planet Venus On the 5th and 6th June 2012 the planet Venus will pass across the face of the Sun and this is called a Venus Transit. It is among that rarest of planetary alignments and only 7 of them have happened since the invention of the telescope.

They happen in pairs with 8 years in between them. The dates of previous ones have been 1631 and 1639, then 1761 and 1769, followed by 1874 and 1882 and then finally 2004 which was the opener to a pair which will see the second event in 2012. Venus and the Sun do cross over regularly, but ordinarily Venus passes our star high or low instead of moving across the Sun’s face. This event actually has more impact in terms of meaning because of this. We have to understand that a Venus Transit is like an eclipse. Electromagnetic force lines and plasma flux ropes will cross over. Imagine a piece of string going from Earth to the Sun and one from Earth to the Venus too. It's as if the strings will cross each other and vibrations pass down the string. So what is the meaning of this in astrology? To find that out we have to explore the meaning of Venus and then look at the events around the last 3 pairs of Venus Transits and see if there are any similarities in world events. For what happened then will happen again now, taking into account cultural differences.

The Meaning of Venus If you do not know any astrology, that's no problem, you can read this, for I will be describing things in layman's terms. Venus is an Earth or Earthy planet. This much must be understood at the beginning. So what she delivers (or takes away) is manifestly and concretely felt. You can hold it, celebrate it and use it. Venus seeks gratification, pleasure and fulfilment. She will give affirmation and success in war or love because her aim is to manifest it .......to make it happen - whatever that is. Venus understands the beauty of form, possession and manifestation. She is useful in practical and everyday living for protection, power and support. She supports aspiration, success and achievement in LIFE. To the Egyptians, her symbol, the ankh, was known as the Giver of Life. The Meaning of the Sun This is the energy storehouse of our existence. The Sun's immense nuclear and spiritual power fuels our lives from within and without. Many ancient and not-so-ancient cultures believed that the Sun was the source of all Spirit.

It is the heart and ruler of our Solar System and it controls all life with the heat that warms and the energy (calories) that emanate from it both invisibly and visibly. So the Sun gives light and invisible power. What do They Mean Together? On the surface of it, together they mean something very successful and powerful, but on this occasion they might just SAVE THE PLANET! Sort of a cosmic Superman and Superwoman actually. For if you haven't noticed, Earth is in trouble and we need a miracle. We are heavily over-populated and we are indulging in massive over-consumerism. Debt has fuelled over-inflation and the over-consumption of our planets raw materials. In short, we have been asleep in the wheelhouse of the Titanic for the last two decades and now we need a miracle! So hopefully, this Venus Transit can deliver one...... How? Let's look at what happened before..... From 1631 to 1639 A new world view was emerging, beginning with Galileo’s insistence that the Earth was not the centre of the Universe, the Sun was.

Another influence was Rene Descartes who brought order to thought and something of a revolution in the intellectual life of Western man. The Catholic Church remained powerful, but was challenged. A new generation of communicating European scientists were making nonsense of theories that had been rock solid for generations with microscopes and other inventions. They sought answers to motion and dynamics; things that had been unquestioned because they were holy and under God’s control. Authority and power was shifting.….and chocolate had arrived. (yyessss!!) From 1761 to 1769 After a spectacular year of military successes in 1759, Britain signed peace treaties with France and Spain in 1763. Britain was now the dominant power in North America. However, the American Revolution started brewing at this time and the Anglican Church was ousted in 1761. Exploration for the achievement of scientific knowledge began with Captain Cook’s mission to Tahiti. (Vanilla to go with the chocolate?) He makes an unprecedented contribution to the knowledge of the Pacific. An industrial revolution occurred in Britain and the first of the mills, factories and canals were opened.

From 1874 to 1882 There were huge leaps in technology, electricity for public use and the telephone, light bulb and recording equipment were all invented. The Theosophical Society and the Christian Science movement were both founded in 1875. So, what did these three periods have in common? A common feature is exploration and the seeking of scientific knowledge, which is interesting, since it is very apparent that we are in the middle of huge advancements in scientific exploration now. Captain Cook’s expeditions, with their painstaking recording of information on species marked a leap forward in the history of human inquisitiveness and acquisition of knowledge. The most common theme is revolution. In the 17th century it was about scientific revolution which the Catholic Church could no longer contain. In the 18th century it was about an industrial revolution in Britain (a dominant world super-power) and the preludes to a government revolution in America (to get rid of the afore-mentioned dominant world super-power.) In the 19th century a technological or electrical revolution began.

Venus transits always occur in Gemini and Sagittarius alternately - an axis that is all about exploration and the gathering of knowledge for books in an effort to gain gnosis and superior understanding. Religion and spiritual questioning is associated with the sign of Sagittarius and each of the eras has some notable milestones concerning issues of faith. We are heading for a Spiritual Revolution by the looks of it. |(Yay!) Vive La Revolution! `Live the Revolution` and the revolution theme is most welcome when we think about it. For right now, what we need most of all is revolution! We need breakthroughs in science and technology that will revolutionise our ability to get power from thin air. If we could draw limitless, non-polluting power from the invisible energy that exists all around us we could de-salinate sea water and grow crops on the Moon. The particle science being explored by the teams at the Large Hadron Collider could take us into the realms of harnessing power out of dark energy and this could solve oh-so-many problems. Or perhaps a better way would be to revolutionise many areas of the way we conduct ourselves on this planet.

We are heavily over-populated and the only reason we don't provide free and effective birth control pills to the poor women in Africa is because the MEN of the Catholic Church forbid it. Why not give a woman the right to choose whether or not she gets pregnant? Western women have been choosing for decades. Venus represents women and particularly the priestesses of the temple who were there to initiate men. In Africa I hear the men `initiate` themselves whether or not the woman wants it. We can't stop that happening, but we can give these women the protection (protection is a key Venusian theme) that they can choose to take to limit the consequences can't we? Hopefully, Venus will bring all these taboo questions into mainstream media. Western lifestyles and social care were funded by credit which threatens to bankrupt the western world and over-consumerism has nearly depleted natural resources and raw materials. Venus represents all of these things, let's hope that her move IN FRONT of the Sun shows her intention to improve our attitude in these areas. Is it a Coincidence that 2,012 Beacons of Fire will be Lit Across the British Empire on June 4th?

It is something of a mystery that 2012 is also the year that London hosts the Olympics and it happens to be the Queen's Diamond Jubilee - she has reigned for 60 years. In celebration of this, there is a co-ordinated project to light 2,012 beacons of fire on all the high places of the UK on the 4th June 2012. Just TWO days before the passage of Venus across the face of the Sun! The ancient races understood Venus' power and the importance of this event. They too, would have celebrated it in this way. It is simply astonishing that these events should coincide in this way. We live in an amazing Cosmos! LIKE Alison's Facebook page to get regular astrology updates for the lay-person. No astrology jargon used. Just Alison's translation of what the planets above our heads mean on that day. These are for everyone and do not involve starsigns. CLICK HERE FOR FACEBOOK PAGE:- Some More Complcated Stuff on Venus for the Geeks....... Don't go any further unless you have nothing better to do.....

According to scientist Takeshi Imamura "Venus's atmosphere is in perpetual motion, as if a living thing,"(1) The planet has high speed winds of sulphuric acid that whip around the planet 60 times faster than the planet itself moves, producing a dynamic, churning maelstrom.The Venusian surface is bone dry and hot enough to melt lead, with a thick atmosphere that is 96% carbon dioxide and a corrosive mist of sulphuric acid. (Sexy huh?) But somehow Venus produces lightening, when according to physics as we know it - that is impossible. The Japanese scientist says "In so many ways, Venus is similar to Earth. It has about the same mass, is approximately the same distance from the sun, and is made of the same basic materials. Yet the two worlds ended up so different. We want to know why."(2) Did it suffer from a case of global warming run amok – or something else? Modern pop astrology has tended to reduce Venus’ ancient meanings to those of a loved-up Barbie doll, but there is a surprising amount to contemplate when one investigates more deeply.

Interestingly, Venus has phases, depending on which angle we view her from and how the Sun’s light is striking her. So, like the Moon, Venus can also look like a crescent or be `full` as in the full Moon. And then there is the difference between her appearing in the dusky morning or the fading twilight of the evening. Because Venus is closer to the Sun than the Earth, she can therefore never be more than about 48 degrees away from the Sun as seen by us. So when she’s orbiting round the Sun’s right side, she looks like she’s in front of our star and rises before him in the morning. And when she’s coming back up his left side, she looks like she’s behind him and sets after the Sun in the evening. Many ancient races attributed different meaning to Venus according to her being the Morning star or the Evening star.

Fascinating ethnoastronomical research presented in 1983, analysed the meaning of Venus in 93 different ancient cultural religions/mythologies from predominantly the Middle East and the Americas, and listed the similar meanings.(3) In the majority of those cultures and as the Morning star, Venus was understood to be masculine by gender with associations to light, fire, power, war, animals and their guardianship, lightening, spiritual guidance and mediation, civilised leadership and day. As the Evening star she was linked with Femininity, fertility, old age, death and the Netherworld. Out of interest, the ancient Mesopotamians believed the right of the body was masculine and the left side was feminine.(4) Obviously humans are generally stronger on the right, but how come Venus appears stronger there? Um… give up! It is interesting to consider that astrologically, when Venus is as far away from the Sun as she can get and therefore really distinct in the early or late darkness then she is in a different zodiac sign and therefore competing. The Sun is pouring forth one element and Venus is subscribing to another, describing a natural conflict.

However, that doesn’t explain how all those cultures arrived at such similar views of morning and evening positions. Venus as a Collective or Transiting Energy We can get a sense of Venus’s rich and diverse history when we see that she has been associated with not just Isis, but also angel Lucifer the light bearer and the Virgin Mary.(5) It is difficult to compare the last character with Venus as representative of a vital reproductive force that stimulates virility and success in war, but there we go. The very ancient races did not have natal astrology with personal horoscopes, so for them, Venus represented a universal energy that could be called on to give protection, power and support. In transiting astrology (without reference to natal charts) today, she still has these valuable gifts, along with affirmation, success, security, aspiration, achievement and support with earthly acquisition. Venus is an Earth planet and as such, she is a magnetic and attractive force, but this also puts her in a class with Saturn who can then be seen as her higher Earth partner.

(Saturn’s Latin roots lie in abundance and prosperity, even though he tends to represent LACK of these things now.) Venus, Juno and Self Esteem If you are using Juno in your charts, you won’t need me to tell you what an incredibly accurate planet she is for `marriage` and similar relating issues. Juno seems to pick up the Libran energy and represents the balance of power and exchange of relating in a very literal way; she symbolises the extreme relating emotions and tensions of her mythological character, Hera. Venus has a broader and wider responsibility as we have seen already, and brings issues of value, self worth and gratification into the game. Still the same need for affirmation and success but with a more desirable, pleasure and fulfilment orientation, for after all, Venus is an Earth planet and Juno is Airy. Venus understands the beauty of form, possessiveness, attraction and manifestation. Essentially, Venus is much more involved with personal tastes, esteem, values and self-worth than Juno. Perhaps just check your chart for Juno activity on the day you married….. she will then speak for herself. All the planets symbolise keywords and energies that they provide or remove.

So just as Venus represents a healthy sense of self-esteem in her positive guise, in her emanation as Apostrophia, she represents loss of self-esteem. In this way, rejection, either by parents as a child, or rejection in love in later life, results in loss of self-esteem which Venus can easily represent. (Students are always horrified to discover that Venus activity can mean loss of relationship or loosing `possession` of love, just as easily as the acquisition of it!) A Dazzling Paradox of Complexity It is not just our scientists who are aware of the complexity of planet Venus, in ancient Mesopotamia, where the sparkling star was known as Inanna and Ishtar, her meaning was a dazzling paradox of duality and complexity. She was known as both god and goddess of love and war, who could be wild and savage with violent or erotic behaviour, or grieving and regretful, as she was when the human race was reduced to clay by the world flood.(8) When rejected she is described as lusty, aggressive, vindictive and vengeful.(9) Her sexuality is occasionally innocent and often exotic, but it is her involvement with everyday issues that tells of her fundamental importance.

We are told she calms, pacifies or prepares, but on the other hand she confuses or destroys. She is there in winning, loosing and money accounting and also when one is lying or being truthful. Inanna was a warrior and prostitute with an ability to turn men into women and women into men by combining masculine aggression with an instinctive understanding of what makes humankind tick. There is a simple reality or realistic manifestation to Inanna’s energy which existed in practical, day to day living. She bridged the separateness between human or animal and divine. And although capricious or frightening, she offered understandable dialogue and practical support in realistic pursuits. Inanna could make what shouldn’t have been made, or destroy what shouldn’t have been destroyed, thereby demonstrating her importance in life as she torments and throws outcomes into disarray. The extremes within the concept of Inanna can be compared to those that the actual planet experiences in terms of violence and hostility.

This image is also useful when considering her ambiguous and indefinable gender, where Inanna is both male and female, straddling both potentials or occurring as an energy in both and thereby defying or exceeding the usual rules; as wild and strong willed or beguiling as nature or the divine itself. Science now seeks to understand the churning maelstrom of the Venusian atmosphere with its searingly hot temperatures, (hot temper-atures get it? Ha!) violent lightening and un-explainable high speed winds. However, when pondering the ancient Mesopotamian thoughts on Venus, although the planets tempestuous atmosphere was only discovered in the last century, it seems the Mesopotamians were already briefed! copyright Alison Chester-Lambert 2011 LIKE Alison's Facebook page to get regular astrology updates for the lay-person. No astrology jargon used. Just Alison's translation of what the planets above our heads mean on that day. These are for everyone and do not involve starsigns.

Viewer's Guide: Watch Mercury Cross the Sun Viewer's Guide: Watch Mercury Cross the Sun By Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist | November 3, 2006 07:57am ET MORE The planet Mercury has just finished up a very poor apparition in which it is has dawdled low in the western evening sky for the past few weeks. It has now disappeared into the bright evening twilight, but by later in November, in contrast to its recent poor evening performance, it will be readily visible as an increasingly bright starlike object low in the eastern sky around the break of dawn. But Mercury is also scheduled to make a most unusual - albeit brief - appearance on Nov. 8 [image]. Click here to download a viewer's guide to Mercury's transit. On that day, more than half the world [image] will get to see a rare event - Mercury crossing the face of the Sun at inferior conjunction. Observers throughout the Americas, as well as across eastern Asia, Australia and New Zealand will be able to observe all or at least part of this striking celestial phenomenon with small telescopes, as the innermost planet slowly crosses in front of the solar disk. Such a phenomenon is known to astronomers as a transit.

Mercury and Venus are the only major planets we can ever see crossing the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus happen less than twice a century (the next one is scheduled for June 6, 2012). Those of Mercury are some 10 times more frequent. Nonetheless, only 14 transits of Mercury occur during the 21st century - or about seven years apart on average. The November 8 event will be the second Mercury transit in this century, the first having occurred in May 2003. The entire transit will be an east-to-west passage taking just 4 hours and 58 minutes. The Sun will be above the horizon for the entire transit over western sections of North America, much of the Pacific Ocean (including Hawaii), New Zealand, and a small slice of eastern Australia and adjacent Tasmania. Take note that since they are all located to the west of the International Date Line, eastern Asia, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand will experience the transit on the calendar date of November 9. For all of these locations, it will be morning and with the exceptions of New Zealand, easternmost Australia and Tasmania, the Sun will rise with Mercury already on its disk.

From the United States, those situated to the east of a line running from roughly Bonners Ferry, Idaho to El Paso, Texas will be able to see the beginning stages of the transit, as Mercury moves onto the lower left part of the Sun. Mercury Transit Webcasts Exploratorium Mercury's transit will begin within a minute of 19:12 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) at every site from which it is visible. That translates to 2:12 p.m. Eastern Standard Time or 11:12 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Unfortunately, for most of the United States, local sunset will intervene before Mercury can move off the Sun's disk. Prior to sundown, however, the speedy planet should be recognizable moving across the lower portion of the Sun as a tiny, black, sharp-edged dot, having only 1/194 the Sun's diameter. As you watch, the gradual travel of this dot will bring it toward the Sun's right edge. This will be an especially interesting time. The moment when the two disks become internally tangent is known as Contact III. For those western U.S.

and Canadian locations where the end of the transit will be visible, Contact III should occur within several seconds of 4:08:16 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. Egress then lasts just short of two minutes until the last notch in the Sun's limb disappears, marking Contact IV, which should occur within several seconds of 4:10:08 p.m. Pacific Time. With a large, filtered telescope at high power (see the "Warning" below), see if you can time when Mercury's edges cross the limb of the Sun. Perhaps you might briefly catch sight of the so-called "black drop" illusion around the moment of Contact III, where Mercury's disk appears stretched like taffy (by atmospheric seeing) toward the Sun's limb. Another way to describe it is that the planet will seem attached to the Sun's limb by a thin black column or thread. For Europe, Africa, and the western two-thirds of Asia, the bad news is that absolutely none of the transit will be visible, since the Sun will have set some hours before it gets underway.

At NASA's Eclipse Home Page there is a listing of predicted contact times and the corresponding altitude of the Sun for over a hundred cities around the world with an emphasis on Canada and the United States. WARNING: Transits of Mercury are not visible with the unaided eye. A telescope must be used, magnifying at least 30 to 100 power to bring out the "dark dot" of Mercury in silhouette against the Sun's disk. To see Mercury as an actual disk will be a challenge because its angular diameter is small, only 10 seconds of arc at this inferior conjunction. As Mercury moves across the face of the Sun, it will appear absolutely jet black in contrast to the lighter gray of any sunspots that may also be present on the solar disk. Eye safety is always a prime concern when dealing with the Sun. Observing a transit is a lot like studying sunspots because, after all, you are looking at a dark spot on the Sun. But trying to see a transit is also like trying to view a solar eclipse. You have to be ready at a particular time, and you may have to travel far from home. Your exact location, however, is much less critical than it is at a total solar eclipse.

For those in North America where this will be an early morning event, your observing site should have a low horizon to the east-northeast. It is a good precaution to check the sun's rising point a day or two beforehand, to verify that trees or buildings do not block your view. Projecting the Sun's magnified image through a telescope and on to a white card or screen is relatively safe and can be used for group viewing, but remember that Mercury's disk will be quite tiny. For serious transit observing, a telescope with a full-aperture solar filter is much better. Such filters are attached on that side of the telescope that is facing the Sun, not the side facing your eye. This will cause most of the sunlight to be filtered out before entering your telescope. The transit should be watched only with an appropriate solar filter - a solar filter that is sold by a reputable outlet of astronomical equipment. If your telescope comes with a filter that screws into the eyepiece, discard it immediately! Such filters have been known to crack under the intense heat of the Sun's magnified image. Lastly, never look at the Sun directly through your telescope, even through your finder scope.

It is strongly advisable to cover the finder before the transit, so as to avoid looking through it accidentally. Should poor weather hinder or completely obscure your view of Mercury's transit, the next one will come nearly a decade from now on May 9, 2016, and will be visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa and central Asia. Basic Sky Guides Venus transit across sun [ 06 June 2012 toyohashi, japan ] - YouTube Venus transit across sun [ 06 June 2012 toyohashi, japan ] Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jun 6, 2013 Venus transit across sun [ 06 June 2012 toyohashi, japan ] A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth (or another planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk.

During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2012 lasted 6 hours and 40 minutes). A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon. While the diameter of Venus is more than 3 times that of the Moon, Venus appears smaller, and travels more slowly across the face of the Sun, because it is much farther away from Earth. Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena. They occur in a pattern that generally repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. The periodicity is a reflection of the fact that the orbital periods of Earth and Venus are close to 8:13 and 243:395 commensurabilities. The last transit of Venus was on 5 and 6 June 2012, and was the last Venus transit of the 21st century; the prior transit took place on 8 June 2004.

The previous pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882. The next transits of Venus will be 10--11 December 2117, and in December 2125. Category Transit of Venus Transit of Venus Transit of inferior planets Mercury and Venus are inferior planets in the Solar System as they are nearer to the Sun than the Earth. A transit of an inferior planet occurs when the inferior planet, the Sun and the Earth align in a straight line with the inferior planet in between. During the transit, the inferior planet appears as a dark dot across the Sun's disc. This phenomenon does not occur every year because of the inclination of the inferior planet's orbit to that of the Earth (Figure 1). Figure 1 The relative positions of the Sun, an inferior planet and the Earth during the transit of the inferior planet. Transit of Venus Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun in the Solar System. It is also closer to the Earth than any other planets. Besides the Sun and the Moon, Venus is the brightest object in the sky. Transit of Venus is a rare astronomical phenomenon with only 2 occurrences in 100 years.

The latest two transits occurred in 1874 and 1882 respectively. After 2004, the next transit will occur in 2012. The different stages during the transit of Venus on 8 June 2004 Beginning of transit: Exterior contact: Venus begins to enter the Sun's disc Interior contact: Venus is just entirely inside the Sun's disc End of transit: A transit of Venus, an age of wondrous science - CNN.com A transit of Venus, an age of wondrous science By Meg Urry, Special to CNN Updated 9:59 AM ET, Wed June 6, 2012 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. Photos: Photos: Venus transits the sun Venus transits the sun – Venus appears as a black spot against the sun on Tuesday, as seen from the west side of Manhattan in New York. Astronomers around the world are training their telescopes on the skies to watch the transit of Venus as it passes between Earth and the sun.

Hide Caption 1 of 9 Photos: Photos: Venus transits the sun Venus transits the sun – Ray Dobbins of New York uses a telescope to observe the transit of Venus at the High Line park in Manhattan. Hide Caption 2 of 9 Photos: Photos: Venus transits the sun Venus transits the sun – Venus last passed between the sun and Earth in 2004. It won't happen again for 105 years. Hide Caption 3 of 9 Photos: Photos: Venus transits the sun Venus transits the sun – New Yorkers gather to witness the event on Tuesday. Watching without special glasses will permanently damage your eyes, experts say. Hide Caption 4 of 9 Photos: Photos: Venus transits the sun Venus transits the sun – CNN iReporter Christopher Oskoian snapped this shot of Venus in transit from Flint, Michigan. Hide Caption 5 of 9 Photos: Photos: Venus transits the sun Venus transits the sun – Observers in New York's Riverside Park view the event through special cardboard glasses.

Hide Caption 6 of 9 Photos: Photos: Venus transits the sun Venus transits the sun – An ultraviolet image taken from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft shows Venus at the top left of the sun. Hide Caption Photos: Photos: Venus transits the sun Venus transits the sun – Astronomy students in Mexico City look at the sun through telescopes. Hide Caption 8 of 9 Photos: Photos: Venus transits the sun Venus transits the sun – Venus crosses the sun, as seen from Mexico City. The entire transit takes 6 hours and 40 minutes. Hide Caption Meg Urry says we should take the chance to view Venus' transit The alignment needed for the event happens only once a century or so The next one will take place in 2117, she says Tonight, Tuesday, June 5, as the sun set on the East Coast, the planet Venus began its "transit" across the face of the sun. Pay close attention: Barring a miracle of future medicine, this is your only chance to witness such a crossing. The next one will take place in 2117.

That's because the transit of Venus is basically an eclipse, just like when the moon passes across the face of the sun. It requires a close alignment of the sun, Venus and Earth. The moon is not nearly as large as Venus but it is so close to Earth that its disk covers nearly the entire solar disk. Venus, on the other hand, is so far away that it appears as a small black dot covering about 3% of the solar disk. Venus orbits the sun every 226 Earth-days, compared to our 365 days, so the two planets sort of pass each other relatively often. But their orbits lie in slightly canted planes, so the alignment needed for an eclipse happens only once a century or so. Nearly 500 years ago, Johannes Kepler figured out the orbits of the planets. He understood that Venus was 30% closer to the sun than Earth, and that Mars was 50% more distant. But he didn't know how to measure the distance from any planet to the sun.

Meg Urry A century after Kepler, Edmund Halley, of comet fame, proposed measuring the distance from Earth to the sun using a series of observations of the transit of Venus from widely separated points on Earth. Halley did not live to measure the next transit of Venus, in 1761, but others mounted worldwide expeditions that did the trick. The best measurements of that transit were made by Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason, of Mason-Dixon-line fame. Today, we can measure interplanetary distances far more accurately than the transit method allows, though amateurs can still contribute their measurements using an app from Astronomers Without Borders. As for the specialness of the transit, well, it's rarer than passages of Mr. Halley's famous comet. JUST WATCHED MUST WATCH 'Science Guy' Bill Nye explains it all 04:33 The transit of Venus can't be observed with the Hubble Space Telescope because the extreme brightness of the sun would destroy the telescope and its instruments. But astronomers have figured out a clever way for Hubble to "observe" the effects of the transit on the light from the sun: by looking at the moon.

The moon "shines" in reflected sunlight, so it is basically a weak mirror that is safe for Hubble to observe. The reason astronomers want to observe reflected sunlight during the transit of Venus is to test whether they can detect the faint imprint of passage of the sun's light through the atmosphere of Venus. They have used similar observations of more distant stars to find "exoplanets" (planets orbiting stars other than the sun) and in a few rare cases, to measure characteristics of the exoplanet atmospheres. The goal of the Hubble observations is to find signs of life and/or habitability, such as water or carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Hubble will focus its cameras on the moon for the full six hours of the transit of Venus. So the transit of Venus is now being used to help us learn about other Solar Systems. Venus is the second closest planet to the sun, after Mercury; Earth is third; Mars is fourth. That means only Mercury and Venus (and our moon) can cause eclipses from a vantage point on the Earth. But if we lived on Jupiter, Earth and Mars could also be seen (rarely!) transiting across the sun.

Here is the poor man's way to "see" the transit of the Earth across the sun: look with the Hubble Space Telescope at Jupiter in 2014, to see the reflected light of the sun from Jupiter's surface. (The light falling on Jupiter, and being reflected from there, is what we would see if we lived on Jupiter. The sun is too bright for Hubble to observe directly.) Those Hubble measurements would reveal whether signs of life on Earth -- signs of us! -- are detectable in starlight as a planet with an atmosphere transits across the star. Drake Deming, professor at the University of Maryland, points out that Earth can be seen transiting the sun from many vantage points throughout our galaxy. If there is intelligent life out there, maybe it is looking for signs of life on Earth from such transits. You may have witnessed the last transit of Venus in 2004. But the one before that was visible only to your great-great-grandparents, on December 6, 1882. As William Harkness (1837-1903), then director of the U.S.

Naval Observatory, said on the eve of the 1882 transit: "There will be no other transits of Venus 'til the 21st century of our era has dawned upon the Earth. When the last transit occurred the intellectual world was awakening from the slumber of ages, and that wondrous scientific activity, which has led to our present advanced knowledge, was just beginning. What will be the state of science when the next transit season arrives God only knows. Not even our children's children will live to take part in the astronomy of that day." You are in that day, another age of wondrous scientific activity. What will the world of your great-great grandchildren be like in 2117?

Question: The 21st century's second and last solar transit (across the Sun) of what planet happened in 2012?
Answer: Venus