The June flowers are blooming in 2004 and venus in transit

"We are now on the eve of the second transit of a pair, after which there will be no other till the Twenty-First century of our era has dawned upon the earth, and the June flowers are blooming in 2004.... What will be the state of science when the next transit season arrives God only knows." (American astronomer William Harkness in 1882).

Indeed, many changes have occured in the field of science, by the time the next transit of venus has arrived.

Astronomers call a 'transit' when a star, sun or planet, is seen passing in front of another such celestial body. The most common one is the eclipse of the sun, when the moon passes in front of the sun. But the rare ones, the tranist of Mercury and the Venus, draws more attention.

What the world is about to witness on June 8th, is what no living human has seen; a venus transit.

Earlier, astronomers used venus and mercury transits to get information about the dimensions of the solar system such as the distance between Earth and the Sun. However, the use of modern radio signals emitted by spacecraft has led to the discovery of many such information and the event is not of much scientific importance. Nevertheless, it is still an event that raises educational interest.

www.vt-2004.org is a very informative site dedicated to this event. Here is an interesting account i read from the website.

"Astronomers travelled to remote parts of the world to observe the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769. To observe the transit of 1769, Captain Cook sailed from England to Tahiti. He discovered Hawaii and a few other places as bonuses along the way; it is not often that the side benefits of astronomical research are so apparent."

One other interesting thing I have read from Wikipedia is that the early Greeks thought the morning and evening appearance of Venus were two different objects. They called it Phosphorus when it appeared in the eastern morning sky and called it Hesperus when it was on the western evening sky. They eventually figured this out thanks to Pythagoras.

Anybody who wants to observe the venus transit is advised to have eyes protected because the direct exposure to sun can lead to retina burn and eye damage, even instant blindness.