The passage of Venus over the disk of the Sun is an event that can only be seen once in a lifetime

The planet Venus during the orbital motion every 583.93 days is between the Sun and the Earth. This configuration is called a "lower connection". At such times the celestial body can cause partial eclipses, projecting onto the disk of the luminary. However, the dimensions of the planet Venus are less than 30 times the solar ones. Because of this, when viewed through a telescope, the celestial body can be seen against the background of the star's disk in the form of a small dark circle. However, one can observe this phenomenon without such an instrument. People can contemplate the passage of Venus on the disk of the Sun, even through the dark glass. If this planet were in the same plane with the Earth, then this phenomenon would repeat with each lower connection. However, it has a slope to the ecliptic of 3.395. Therefore, in the lower connections, the celestial body passes to the south or to the north of the luminary. This is due to the peculiarities of the movement of this planet. The passage of Venus along the disk of the Sun can be possible if the lower connection should take place near the site of the planet's orbit.

Frequency of observations

In the Roman Empire, every hundred years there were Centennial games. Their motto was: "No one has seen this event before and will never see it again." Such a large gap between games was chosen so that even long-livers could not hold out until the new holiday. The passage of Venus through the disk of the Sun is a very interesting event. It happened in 2012 on the 6th of June. Before that, it happened in 2004. However, hardly any of those people who observed this phenomenon, will see it again. The passage of Venus over the disk of the Sun is a pair phenomenon. First there are two summer intersections of the star with an eight-year interval, and after that, after 105 years, two winter ones, also with an interval of 8 years. Then, in 121 and a half year, again, there are paired summer passages. The next similar phenomenon will take place in 2117.

Observations in the past

Nowadays, no one expects any more scientific discoveries from the contemplations of the passage of Venus through the disk of the Sun, but in the 18th century the scientific world of Europe traveled to the distant lands to fix these phenomena (1761 and 1769) from various places on the planet. These observations made it possible to know the parallax of our star, the size of the solar system and the distance from the star to the Earth. Lomonosov, thanks to them, was able to determine that Venus has an atmosphere, having seen a thin light halo near the planetary disk, which arose from the refraction of the rays of the star in the atmospheric gas. Passage of Venus on the disk of the Sun of 2012 special discoveries, of course, did not bring.

How to observe similar phenomena

The path of Venus through the disk of the star and other events associated with the luminary must be observed through a dark glass that can weaken the intense light. Otherwise, you can severely injure your eyes. For these purposes, the protective mask of an electric welder is not bad. For observations, it is also possible to use a smoke-smoked glass or a film stacked in several layers, which is exposed and developed. These accessories are good color filters. To safely observe the phenomenon in a telescope, it is necessary to diaphragm his lens somewhere halfway, and at the eyepiece use dark glass or magnetic disks from old computer diskettes.