Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Venus Fly By

The higher elevations-mountains- had an advantage over the flats as the planet Venus made a transit across the face of the sun yesterday. Scientists around the world, and astronomers,too, made the effort to focus on this celestial event. A relative rarity, this will not happen again in our lifetimes. The Hubble Space Telescope watched(observed ) the transit by focusing on----the moon! It has to do with measuring reflection so as not to damage the Hubble lens.
NASA made hay with its web coverage, experiencing 90K+ hits on its dedicated site. Not bad considering the general lack of interest in things in the space realm. Amateurs managed to view the sight by adjusting their scopes to account for the sun's direct exposure. The transit was visible across a wide swath of the globe, including portions of both hemispheres. Where was the best viewing position? No single place was best, and your view depended on equipment and set up to deal with solar light.
Tahomans had the altitude edge, but hiding behind a mountain or a cloud would nullify that position. So, if you missed it, look at NASA!

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