The Venus Transit 2004

The Venus Transit 2004

European Science & Technology Week 2004 European Southern Observatory European Association for Astronomy Education Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Observatoire de Paris Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Éphémérides (IMCCE)
Last update: 2004 Jun 08 09:20 CEST
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quick links: weather - forum - nodes - video - participate - observers - links - archive = printer friendly page=

VT-2004 No. of registered participants : 2043
No. of observers with timings : 54
No. of timings sent : 88
Official value of 1 AU : 149597870 km
Calculated AU : 152899200 km
Dispersion : ± 2528074 km
Absolute Difference : 3301330 km
Difference as percentage: 2.207 %

.... more (with graphics).

Join the Observing        Campaign!

JOIN THE CAMPAIGN!
Map of Observers'        Locations

OBSERVERS
Pic du Midi Observatory
Tourelle
June 8, 2004, 06:55 UT
France
Display Window 2 Venus Transit - 1st and 2nd contacts
Bob Fosbury
3-inch refractor + Sony DSC-F717 June 8, 2004
Ottobrunn near Munich, Germany
ESO HQ Swedish Solar 1-m Telescope
The bright feature on Venus is an optical artefact
La Palma, Spain
June 8, 2004, 07:09 UT
Latest Comment (June 8, 07:30 UT) : The visual light one sees from the Sun comes from a thin layer that is called the photosphere. This is where you see the sunspots and this layer is only about 300 km thick.
Look at the first video from the entry of Venus onto the solar disc - it was obtained by the AGAPE observers at ESO HQ in Garching (Germany). We are getting more and more data for the continuous calculation of the distance from the Earth to the Sun, based on timing data from VT-2004 observers deposited at the central VT-2004 computer. Form the display above (which is updted all the time, they are clearly doing very well - we are only about 2% off! This means that we are nearly as good as the professional observers in the 19th century. Moreover, now we get this result in real time - thanks to modern communication technology - whereas they had to wait several months in those days...
A lot of articles about the transit are appearing on the web - there are now about 1200 on the Google News. The VT-2004 website is still experiencing about 1500 hits per second (90,000 per minute) - and the data volume has now reached 540 Mbits/sec.
Other Webcast Sites

OTHER WEBSITES

VT-2004 Dissemination
The Weather

WEATHER

The VT-2004 Forum

FORUM

Go to VT-2004 National        Nodes

NODES

Video Clips from the Venus Transit

VIDEO

Search for Venus Transit on Google News

SEARCH

Central Display Top Page Archive

ARCHIVE