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    NASA Does It Better
    By Tommaso Dorigo | June 6th 2012 04:23 PM | 10 comments | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
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    About Tommaso

    I am an experimental particle physicist working with the CMS experiment at CERN. In my spare time I play chess, abuse the piano, and aim my dobson...

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    The winner picture of the Venus transit must be the one below, whose original version can be found here. Thanks Bente Lilya Bye for posting the link on her Facebook page!



    The picture was taken by Hinode, a joint JAXA-NASA mission to study the Sun's magnetism in and around sunspots.

    Comments

    How about this one:
    http://media.talkingpointsmemo.com/slideshow/venus-transit-sun?ref=fpblg

    Arun (not verified) | 06/06/12 | 17:16 PM
    dorigo
    Nice one Arun, but it does not compare!
    T.
    Tommaso Dorigo | 06/07/12 | 03:25 AM
    Hfarmer
    That looks so good... It's like something out of Star Trek.
    —
    Science advances as much by mistakes as by plans.
    Hontas Farmer | 06/06/12 | 17:25 PM
    rholley

    Che spettacolo!


    Here in Britain, I got up in time to see some solar glare coming through thin parts of the cloud cover, practically at the end of the transit.
     
    However, on TV, we a were treated to picture of a squashed-looking orangy sun, close to the horizon, partly covered with cloud, but with Venus visible.
     
    Now we are told not to look even at the setting sun with binoculars, but with an explanation that there will still be a lot of UV around.  Surely, with the setting sun, is it not infrared which will not be attenuated, and which will focus and burn a hole in the eyes?
     
    Presumably, this does not affect the screen of a digital camera, since many people send in sunset shots.  But to get to those, I would have to walk to the Reading University playing fields, about 10 minutes from here, since one cannot see that close to the horizon.  One could,

    —
    Robert H. Olley Quondam Physics Department University of Reading England
    Robert H Olley | 06/07/12 | 05:39 AM
    dorigo
    Quite amusing ! How old is that song ?
    Cheers,
    T.
    Tommaso Dorigo | 06/07/12 | 07:10 AM
    rholley
    Here is a biography of Gus Elen from the Victoria & Albert Museum, featuring a music sheet cover from 1894.

    This archive presents an 1899 recording of the song (78 r.p.m., 1899).  I find the version without noise removed produces less distortion of the vowels.

    LYRICS
    —
    Robert H. Olley Quondam Physics Department University of Reading England
    Robert H Olley | 06/07/12 | 07:34 AM
    UvaE

    The above pic is also from NASA. 
    This next one is from India---how long will it take for us to see both the crow and Venus in transit again ?! :)



    Enrico Uva | 06/07/12 | 08:23 AM
    Hi,

    I am not an astroph and not even expert.
    I found an interesting feature in the picture you posted.
    I was expecting a very sharp edge around venus while you can see that there is a sort of yellow line
    (visible only in the part where is overlapping with the deep space)
    is than an effect of the photography technique or it is some sort of diffraction
    of the atmosphere?

    D

    D (not verified) | 06/07/12 | 09:15 AM
    rholley
    “In 1761, Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov observed a ring of light surrounding Venus as it transited the sun and concluded that Venus has an atmosphere.”
        (link)

    See also Atmospheric refraction, noting particularly the first two pictures in the article.
    —
    Robert H. Olley Quondam Physics Department University of Reading England
    Robert H Olley | 06/07/12 | 14:35 PM
    dorigo
    I believe it is the Venus atmosphere, D. It is quite dense, and its effect can be observed even when the planet is away from the sun's corona.

    Cheers,
    T.
    Tommaso Dorigo | 06/08/12 | 04:25 AM