June 18, 2011
It has been two weeks since the Transit of Venus Project’s website www.transitofvenus.nl was launched, and even in this short period of time it has been much improved. The transit calculator is now online, allowing you to compute the contact times for any given location on earth. Also, Rob van Gent agreed to host his extensive transit of Venus bibliography on our website. There’s still a lot of work to do before all of his bibliographic entries are transferred (the Bibliotèque nationale de France decided to change their permalinks on the Gallica website), so please return in the next couple of weeks to see for new additions. Together with the list of locations of historical observations, the project’s website now forms the most comprehensive resource for anyone interested in the history of the transit of Venus.
In the section “Getting involved” you’ll find the activities currently adopted by the Transit of Venus Project. More will follow, but for now I would like to introduce to you the three activities already open for all to participate:
Experimental archaeology
What did astronomers in the past actually see? What did the black drop look like through an eighteenth century eyepiece, and could the aureole effect have been observed at all, as is often claimed? By observing the 2012 transit of Venus with antique telescopes, this project hopes to find an answer to these questions.
Contact: Randall Rosenfeld (r.rosenfeld@transitofvenus.nl)
Mark that site!
Many of the locations where astronomers observed the transit of Venus in the past go unnoticed today. Still, these places tell exciting stories. This project’s objective is to relocate, inventory, restore and eventually mark significant sites of past transit expeditions.
Contact: Steven van Roode (s.vanroode@transitofvenus.nl)
Measure the Sun’s distance
This experiment – proposed originally by Edmond Halley, forming the driving force behind the historical expeditions and re-enacted on a large scale in 2004 – will be repeated again in 2012. This time, however, we will make use of modern technology, much of which wasn’t even available to us in 2004. Measuring of the contact times and submitting your data will be facilitated by an easy to use (and free) phone app.
Contact: Steven van Roode (s.vanroode@transitofvenus.nl)
Finally, I would like to draw your attention to our fund-raising campaign. We need funds to start developing the phone app for you. See http://www.transitofvenus.org/education/video-new-media/217-phone-app for more details of the phone app. Please support the Transit of Venus Project by donating $50, $100 or more! You can use the donate button on our home page
In the mean time, if you haven’t done it already, please consider joining our group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_108400462513165