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The Astronomy Club of Akron

Venus transit SUCCESS!
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We had to endure rain, thick clouds that teased us by appearing to clear then thicken again.  The clock kept ticking away precious time since we only had until 8:32pm when the Sun would set behind the trees.  And then, suddenly, at 8:04pm, with 28 minutes remaining, the clouds cleared and we were rewarded with views of the Sun with Venus in transit.  We estimate that 200 people stayed through the awful conditions and were rewarded with a view of the actual event in progress and remained in view until it disappeared behind the trees at 8:32pm, right on schedule.  It truly was a "bottom of the 9th, two outs, full-count grand-slam" victory. 
There were lots of smiles.
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Below are images taken by both ACA members and non-members
who shared the emotional rollercoaster - an incredible experience!
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  Photographer

Photos taken on 6/5/2012  (click the image thumbnails for larger versions)

  Bob Benedict  
  Rick Burke  
  Bill DiPuccio
 
 
  Jason Shinn

 

Tuesday, June 5, 2012 at 6:05PM

Transit of Venus across the disk of the Sun
 - an extremely rare event!


This computer-generated animation of the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun compresses 2 hours and 50 minutes into seventeen 1 second frames, each representing a 10 minute advance in clock-time showing exactly what we'll be able to see of the Venus Transit.  The Altitude and Azimuth along with the date and time (24 hour format ie 18:00 = 6:00PM, 19:00 = 7:00PM, etc) are shown and updated from frame to frame since the whole event is steadily sinking into the west due to the Earth's rotation.  The image is un-reversed and un-inverted so you'll need to translate the view you'll see through your inverting and/or reversing telescope.
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Watch the black silhouette of Venus glide across the sun for 2
½ hours of its total 6.8 hour trek.  The last time a Venus transit was visible anywhere from Earth was on June 8, 2004 and the next time will be December 11, 2117 - 105½ years from now!
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While this transit is occurring, the Sun will be 94.3 million miles away and Venus will be 26.8 million miles away from us so Venus will appear 3.5 times larger compared to the Sun than it actually is.

WARNING!!  To observe this event, specially equipped telescopes are absolutely required!
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Where you can go to safely view this rarest
of all predictable astronomical events...

ACA members and others will be set up with proper
viewing equipment at locations throughout northeast
Ohio to bring this event to as many people as possible
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Viewing locations will be posted here as they become known:
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City Description
& Location
Map & Directions
Stow "View the Transit of Venus!"
Fishcreek Elementary School
5080 Fishcreek Rd Stow, OH  44224
Contact: Dave Jessie - 330-688-9043
Website: www.StowAstronomy.org
to Fishcreek Observing Site
Cleveland "The Transit of Venus Expo"
Edgewater State Park
Contact: Jay Reynolds - jay52757@yahoo.com
Further information: Link
to Edgewater Park
Akron "Venus meets the Sun" The Transit Event
Firestone Metro Park
Top of sledding hill, South Main St & Warner Rd
Contact: Rich Ruggles astronomy1on1@cs.com 330-644-5912
to Firestone Metro Park
Canton "Venus Transit Event"
Hoover-Price Planetarium
800 McKinley Monument Dr NW
McKinley Museum Canton, OH 44708

Contact: David Richards - hooverpriceplanetarium@hotmail.com
to Hoover-Price Planetarium
observing
location
Hiram "Transit of Venus Observation"
Stephens Memorial Observatory, Hiram College
Hiram Elementary School
6745 Bancroft St
Hiram, OH 44234

Contact: James Guilford at astronomer@stephensobservatory.org
For updates see www.StephensObservatory.org
to Hiram Elementary School observing
location
Montville "The Transit of Venus"
Observatory Park

10610 Clay St
Montville, OH 44064

Website: http://www.geaugaparkdistrict.org/special-events.shtml#transit
to Observatory Park

 

Data below is for Akron, Ohio on Tuesday June 5, 2012

Event

Time

Altitude

Azimuth

First Contact:

6:04:30 pm (EDT)

29.7° 275.5°
Second Contact:

6:22:11 pm (EDT)

26.4° 278.2°
5° above horizon: 8:19:54 pm (EDT) 295.9°
4° above horizon: 8:25:49 pm (EDT) 296.9°
3° above horizon: 8:31:47 pm (EDT) 297.8°
2° above horizon: 8:37:48 pm (EDT) 298.8°
1° above horizon: 8:43:52 pm (EDT) 299.8°
Sunset:

8:58:37 pm (EDT)

302.2°
Midpoint: 9:32:13 pm (EDT) -6.5° 308.0°
Third Contact: 0:32:30 am (EDT) -25.1° 346.9°
Fourth Contact: 0:50:08 am (EDT) -25.8° 351.4°

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What do we mean by a "contact" event?  Click here for the definition

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For transit information for your location, anywhere in the world, visit:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/Transit.php


For a printer-friendly version of the information in this section, click here

 

Due to the 8:13 ratio of the orbits of Earth and Venus (the Earth makes 8 orbits around the Sun in almost exactly the same time as Venus completes 13 orbits), coupled with the 3.39° inclination of Venus' orbit to the ecliptic, transits occur predictably, but with an odd cadence; always in pairs whose elements are separated by almost exactly 8 years and time between  pairs alternating between 105½ years and 121½ years.
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For additional information, see the Wikipedia article available here


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Chart of All Venus Transits
between 1527 a.d. and 2359 a.d.
Note: All dates and times are given in UT (Universal Time)
EST = UT minus 5 hours
EDT = UT minus 4 hours
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Date and Time of the
Midpoint in Sequential
Venus Transits

Total
Duration
of Transit

Time to
Next Transit
within this Pair
Time to
First Transit of
Next Transit Pair
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Dec 7, 1631 (UT) 05:21 (UT) 3.4 hrs 7y 362d 19h 5m
Dec 4, 1639 (UT) 18:26 (UT) 7.2 hrs 121y 184d 4h 53m
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Jun 6, 1761 (UT) 05:19 (UT)  6.8 hrs 7y 362d 23h 6m
Jun 3, 1769 (UT) 22:25 (UT)  6.6 hrs 105y 186d 23h 42m
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Dec 9, 1874 (UT) 04:07 (UT)  5.0 hrs 7y 362d 18h 58m
Dec 6, 1882 (UT) 17:05 (UT)  6.6 hrs 121y 182d 9h 15m
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Jun 8, 2004 (UT) 08:20 (UT)  6.4 hrs 7y 362d 23h 10m
Jun 6, 2012* (UT)  01:30* (UT)  6.8 hrs 105y 186d 19h 22m
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Dec 11, 2117 (UT) 02:52 (UT)  5.9 hrs 7y 362d 19h 14m
Dec 8, 2125 (UT) 16:06 (UT)  5.8 hrs 121y 183d 13h 36m

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Jun 11, 2247 (UT) 11:42 (UT)  6.0 hrs 7y 362d 23h 5m
Jun 9, 2255 (UT) 04:47 (UT)  7.2 hours
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*Note: Jun 6, 2012 at 1:30 am is the UT designation for June 5, 2012 at 9:30pm EDT

As you can see, Venus transits don't happen often.
Let's hope for clear skies since we won't get another chance!

*
Image of the last Venus transit captured by member John Crilly at 6:56:32am EDT on 6/8/2004

 

Be sure to hit the REFRESH / RELOAD button on your browser
(or the <F5> key on your keyboard) for up-to-date information

Click on the chart above for full details.
The darker blue the squares are, the better the viewing!

Live AccuWeather Satellite Mosaic


Solar System objects rise/set times on this date from Akron, Ohio...
 
 
Jet Stream (updates automatically to latest available image)
    The Jet Stream affects astronomical "seeing" (steadiness of the air)
    If we're in a gray area, seeing will not be as good as in a white area.
    If we're in a white area, the shorter the arrows, the better.

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Last modified: 05/02/13

 

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