Community Corner
(Video) Venus in Transit: Where to Watch in Arcadia
The public is invited to catch a glimpse with special viewing equipment at Arcadia High School.
An opportunity to view the shadow of Venus as it silhouettes against the sun is coming Tuesday and as Arcadia High School physics teacher Brian Devor has pointed out, it’s the chance of a lifetime.
The rare celestial event known to Earthlings as the “transit of Venus” will commence moments after the clock strikes 3 p.m. and will linger past sunset.
The phenomena only occurs when the orbit of Venus synchs with Earth's orbit at one of only two points where both orbits allign with the Sun, Devor said in a statement.
“People have only seen it happen seven times before in all of human history, and for almost 240 years it offered the best way to measure the diameter of the solar system and the universe,” Devor said in the statement.
It will be another 105 years before Earth’s fiery little sister casts her shadow on the solar surface for dwellers on this planet to see. Those who wish to view the event should use protective filtering, something that Arcadia High School will be offering to local residents.
“We are planning to have telescopes with sun safe filters for public viewing at the west end of the Arcadia High School Science Building, upstairs on the landing outside the doors,” Devor said in a statement. “Come with students to view a rare and historically rich astronomic event.”
Griffith Park Observatory will also be hosting a public viewing from noon to 10 p.m. Tuesday, although the transit of Venus will occur from 3:06 p.m. - 8:02 p.m. according to their web site. Free telescopes will be provided, and viewing filters and eclipse glasses will be available for purchase in the gift shop.
The transit of Venus arrives on the heels of another momentous celestial occurence, the recent that offered southern Californians a crescent-shaped sun on May 20, 2012.
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The next solar eclipse visible in the local area will happen in October of 2023, according to ABC news, making the transit of Venus an exceedingly rare spectacle.
The second “rock” from the sun and one of only a handful of planets that can be seen by the naked eye, historically, the planet Venus was associated with the Roman goddess of love and beauty, known as Aphrodite in Greek.
Like ancient Egyptians and other cultures of antiquity, local Chumash Indians regarded Venus as two stars--a positively received morning star or a feared evening star symbolizing the underworld, according to www.ancientx.com.
See the attached PDF file for a detailed visual on the event, courtesy of Devor.
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How will you view Venus? Let us know in the comments.