Transit of Venus, June 8th, 2004

Essen, equatorial view

Venus has done it!

Project Results
Impressions from Essen

Instructions for the procedures of evaluating and publishing the results are given on an additional page.

Another project site, together with German and Russian(!) translations of this site, is due to
Städtisches Gymnasium Fürstenwalde.

(doesn't exist longer)

That site additionally contains a forum for discussion among the participants of this project.
You can find the project site and the forum by clicking the picture above.

You can download a poster showing the essentials of this project.

On June 8th, 2004 Venus will pass the Sun's disc - an event which looks slightly different when observed from different locations on Earth.

Koblenz, 8.22 UT Windhoek, 8.22 UT

(by clicking on the above pictures you can see little related animations)
The differences are smaller than the apparent radius of Venus and you can recognize them only by exact measurements or by combinating simultaneously taken pictures:

Therefore, an international cooperation between schools, amateur astronomers and universities has prepared careful observations of the transit.
The main goals of the project are

to form new contacts between schools, amateur astronomers and universities and getting acquainted with internet collaboration,
to gather information due to transits of Venus in the past, especially the importance for determining the distance to the Sun, i.e. the Astronomical Unit,
to learn photographing the Sun and determining the exact direction to north,
to learn determining the exact position of an object (Venus!) on the Sun's disc,
to learn the mathematical methods of evaluating observations made from different locations and,
most important, to get our own measure for the distance of the Earth to the Sun.

The basic ideas and intentions of this project a described in detail in a paper which can, although not yet ready, be downloaded in an English version and in a German version.

Visibility of the Transit

Daylight side of the Earth when Venus enters the Sun: From this part of the world the 1rst and 2nd contact can be observed. Daylight side of the Earth when Venus leaves the Sun: From this part of the world the 3rd and 4th contact can be observed.
5.20 UT 11.30 UT

The green dots mark the positions our paticipants whose coordinates are known.

Projects for getting own measurements

Project 1:    Measuring the radius of Venus' orbit
Project 2:    Determining of the own geographical coordinates and the projected distance of different observers
Project 3:    Determining the radius of the Earth
Project 4:    Measuring the angular radius of the Sun
Project 5:    Exercises in photographing the Sun and exact position measurements on the Sun's disc (Sunspots)
Project 6:    The Transit of Mercury on May 7th, 2003

Preparation

The first problem for preparation can be found here!

Other Venus Sites
We collaborate with other initiatives, for instance,

School Project Venus-Transit (doesn't exist longer)
Observational Project of Amateur Astronomers, Switzerland (doesn't exist longer)
ESO Project
venus2004.org

Besides there are several other sites dealing with the transit of 2004 or, respectively, with transits in general. We have collected those of the most interesting of them and describe them shortly in a pdf-document. Looking at one of those sites you will find a lot of additional information and links.
Some sources:

U. Uffrecht, Aufruf zu einem weltumspannenden Unterrichtsprojekt, Astronomie und Raumfahrt 38/2, 18 (2001) (in German)
U. Uffrecht, Die Messung der Astronomischen Einheit, Sterne und Weltraum 8/2001, 656 (in German)
S. Webb: Measuring the Universe, Springer: London etc. 1999, p. 44ff
Peter, B.: Untersuchung des Vorüberganges der Venus vor der Sonnenscheibe im Jahre 1882, Nova Acta der Ksl. Leop.-Carol.-Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher, Band XXXIX. Nr. 5, Dresden 1877 (in German)
Maor, E.: June 8, 2004 - Venus in Transit, Princeton University Press: Princeton 2000
Newcomb, S.: Discussion of Observations of the Transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769, in: S. Newcomb, Astronomical Papers (prepared for the use of the American Ephemeris ans Nautical Almanac) Vol. II, Washington 1891
R. Wolf: Handbuch der Astronomie ihrer Geschichte und Litteratur, Zürich 1890-1891, reprinted at Olms: Hildesheim 1973 (in German)
H. Woolf: The Transits of Venus, Princeton University Press: Princeton 1959.

The participants of our project have been pupils, teachers, amateur astronomers, university teachers and so on all over the world.

Prof. Dr. Udo Backhaus
last modification: March 28^th, 2008

5.20 UT	11.30 UT
Daylight side of the Earth when Venus enters the Sun: From this part of the world the 1rst and 2nd contact can be observed.	Daylight side of the Earth when Venus leaves the Sun: From this part of the world the 3rd and 4th contact can be observed.

Project 1:		Measuring the radius of Venus' orbit
Project 2:		Determining of the own geographical coordinates and the projected distance of different observers
Project 3:		Determining the radius of the Earth
Project 4:		Measuring the angular radius of the Sun
Project 5:		Exercises in photographing the Sun and exact position measurements on the Sun's disc (Sunspots)
Project 6:		The Transit of Mercury on May 7th, 2003