THE NEXT TRANSIT OF VENUS

by Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard

The last transit of Venus happened in 1882, but they come i couples (read article ), it will only be 8 years to the next one. That will take place the night between June 5 and 6, 2012.

Starting time will be 23:09:29 GMT (first contact). All of Venus is on the solar disk at 23:27:26 (second contact) and the maximum is reached at 02:29:28. It will touch the of the Sun at 05:31:30 (third contact) and will leave the Sun completely at 05:49:27 GMT (fourth contact).

Some data on the transits of Venus in 2004 and in 2012. All times are in GMT (UT). Add 2 hours for Norwegian/European daylight saving time. Illustration: NASA

Because the transit occurs at local night in Europe, only the last part of it will be visible, except from the northernmost parts of Scandinavia. In southern Norway the sun will rise around 4 am this morning. Thereafter the altitude of the sun will be low for several hours. A clear horizon is therefore needed to observe the phenomenon.

In northern Norway the Sun there will be midnight sun and the whole transit will be observable. If the weather is nice, this might be a very beautiful transit.

However, the low altitude of the sun makes us much more vulnerable for clouds than we will be in 2004. The solar radiation must pass through much more air on its way to us, and also more clouds if they are present.

In northern Norway the cloud conditions are generally less favourable than they are in southern Norway. The chances to actually see a transit will be better in 2004 than in 2012. If the weather conditions should be absolutely hopeless in 2004, there will come another chance 8 years later. Thereafter we must wait until December 11, 2117 and December 8, 2125 for the next tansits of Venus here on Earth.

Due to the weather conditions and because the Sun is above the horizon for only a short time in December in Norway, the transit on June 8, 2004 will be the last to experience under ideal conditions for almost 250 years in Norway!!

Visibility of the transit of Venus in 2012. From much of the densily populated areas of the world it can be viewed in part, but only from relatively few land areas (for instance eastern Asia) can all of it be viewed. Illustration: NASA

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