According to the US' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Philippines is one of the best places on Earth to see a very rare astronomical event: the last Transit of Venus in this lifetime, on June 6.
"The entire event will be widely visible from the western Pacific, eastern Asia and eastern Australia," NASA said on its website. In contrast, most of America will only be able to catch the beginning of the transit; Europe, Africa, and parts of west Asia will only be able to catch the tail end of the event.
The Transit of Venus —a planetary alignment that occurs when Venus passes between the Earth and the sun— is actually one of a pair of rare phenomena which happen eight years apart, with the dual events only taking place approximately every 105 years. The first transit of this lifetime was in 2004; the last transit was in 1882.
People can observe the transit by taking the same precautions used when observing the partial phases of a solar eclipse. The safest manner is to project the image of the Sun through pinholes, telescopes or binoculars onto a screen or by using a filter to shield the naked eye. Staring at the sun without eye protection can severely damage one’s retina.
Please install latest to run SunAeon Venus Transit 2012
The Transit of Venus has four “contacts” —essentially the main events:
At contact I, the rim of Venus will touch that of the Sun at one point.
Minutes later, the entire disk of Venus becomes visible as a dark spot on the Sun when it becomes internally tangent to it, at contact II.
Over the course of several hours, Venus will travel across the disk of the Sun until it reaches the point called “greatest transit”, or the halfway point of its journey.
At contact III, it will have reached the other side, again internally tangent to the rim of the sun.
At contact IV, Venus will already be outside the Sun, only touching it at a tangent at one point, before it ends its transit across it. The Philippines is one of the countries where the entire Transit will be visible.
click here to view the Transit of Venus Simulator @ sunaeon.com/venustransit/
Viewing for underprivileged youths
The Science Explorer, the Philippines' only mobile science interactive learning facility, will give some high school students in Camarines Norte the opportunity to get a good view the last Transit of Venus of this lifetime, on June 6.
And 180 students from six underprivileged schools in Daet, Camarines Norte will have the opportunity to learn about the Transit and actually observe it through telescopes when the Science Explorer event happens on June 6 on the shores of Bagasbas Beach in the provincial capital. The lecture and observation will be done in collaboration with Dr. Rogel Mari D. Sese of the Philippine Space Science Education Program.
“The activity aims to provide the students with the opportunity to observe and learn key celestial phenomena such as the Venus Transit through actual telescopic observation and lectures,” said Dr. Filma G. Brawner, Director of the Department of Science and Technology’s Science Education Institute. “We believe that exposing young students in this kind of astronomical observation will boost their interest in science and hopefully motivate them to pursue studies in the field.”
Live online streaming
The SEI website in partnership with the Advanced Science and Technology Institute will be streaming the Venus Transit observation live on June 6.
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
PHL one of the best places to see Venus Transit on June 6
Labels: World news