Transit of Venus

Venus will come exactly between the Earth and the Sun on June 6th 2012 – this rare event will not occur for another 105 years. This rare celestial phenomena called ‘The Transit of Venus’ will be visible in the early morning around 4-17 a.m.( from the sun rise) to 10-20 a.m. on 6th of June,2012. When the second planet of our solar system Venus passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, it is visible like a black spot over the Sun. Measurement of Earth –Sun distance, discovery of the atmosphere of Venus etc. were made from the observation of the Venus transit. The Transit of Venus occurs at the intervals of 8 years, 121.5 years, 8 years and 105.5 years. The first one of the current pair occurred on 8th June 2004. So the next one will occur on June 6th, 2012. Following that transit will occur after 105 years in the year 2117 ! Please do not look at the Sun directly.

To help mobilise people to watch this event, NCRA has published a graphic novel to describe the history and science behind Venus Transits, and also how best to see it next month. This is aimed primarily at high school and college students.

With permission from the author we are hosting the book in our website. But you are also free to share and host the files yourself. The full English version of the book may be downloaded here. The author of the book is Niruj Mohan Ramanujam, who is a visiting Scientist at the NCRA and the illustrator is Reshma Barve. For more information on the book, please visit this page.

In case you are near Tezpur area, then Tezpur University has planned an event to view this transit in a safe way. Kindly contact Dr. Kishor Kumar Baruah (Email: kiba@tezu.ernet.in) for more info, else visit this page.