Astronomers
say they hope rare planetary spectacle – last for 105 years – will spark
people's curiosity about universe
People in
Australia, India, South Korea and the Philippines use film strips or
None of us
is likely to see Venus pass, like a moving beauty spot, across the face of the
sun again.
From the US
to South Korea, people around the world turned their attention to the daytime
sky on Tuesday and early Wednesday in Asia to make sure they caught the rare
sight of the transit of Venus. The next one will not be for another 105 years.
"If
you can see the mole on Cindy Crawford's face, you can see Venus," Van
Webster, a member of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society, told anyone who
stopped by his telescope for a peek on Mount Hollywood.
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Stages of the transit of Venus as seen from Seoul, South Korea.
Photograph: Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA
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For
astronomers, the transit was not just a rare planetary spectacle. It was also
one of those events they hoped would spark curiosity about the universe and our
place in it.
Sul Ah
Chim, a researcher at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute in South
Korea, said he hoped people would see life from a larger perspective, and
"not get caught up in their small, everyday problems".
"When
you think about it from the context of the universe, 105 years is a very short
period of time and the Earth is only a small, pale blue spot," he said.
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Men watch the transit with a telescope in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP
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The transit
was happening during a six-hour, 40-minute span that began just after 6 pm EDT
(2200 GMT) in the United States. What observers could see and for how long
depended on their region's exposure to the sun during that window of time, and
the weather.
Those in
most areas of North and Central America saw the start of the transit until
sunset, while those in western Asia, the eastern half of Africa and most of Europe
could catch the transit's end once the sun came up.
Hawaii,
Alaska, eastern Australia and eastern Asia including Japan, North and South
Korea and eastern China got the whole show since the entire transit happened
during daylight in those regions.
While
astronomers used the latest technology to document the transit, the American
astronaut Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station was planning to
take photos of the event and post them online.
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| A bird lands on the Taj Mahal during the transit. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/AP
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Online
streams with footage from telescopes around the world proved popular for Nasa
and other observatories. A Nasa stream midway through the transit had nearly 2m
total views and was getting roughly 90,000 viewers at any given moment.
Meanwhile,
terrestrial stargazers were warned to look at the celestial event only with a
properly filtered telescope or cardboard eclipse glasses. If the sun is viewed
directly, permanent eye damage could result.
In Los
Angeles, throngs jammed Mount Hollywood, where the Griffith Observatory rolled
out the red carpet for Venus. The last time the city witnessed a Venus transit
was 130 years ago in 1882. A 2004 transit was not visible from the western US.
Telescopes
with special filters were set up next to the lawn and people took turns peering
at the sun before and during the transit. Astronomers and volunteers lectured
about the rarity of a Venus pass to anyone who would listen.
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A boy watches the transit of Venus through binoculars with special filters
in Gwacheon, South Korea. Photograph: Lee Jin-Man/AP
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Minutes
before Venus first touched the outer edge of the sun, John Philip Sousa's
Transit of Venus March blared through. The crowd turned their attention
skyward.
Jamie
Jetton took the day off work to bring her two nephews, six and 11, visiting
from Arizona to the observatory. Sporting eclipse glasses, it took a little
while before they spotted Venus.
"I'm
still having fun. It's an experience. It's something we'll talk about for the
rest of our lives," she said.
Bo Tan, a
32-year-old software engineer, took half a day off work and went with his
co-workers to the observatory. He admitted he was not an astronomy buff but
could not miss this opportunity.
He pointed
his eclipse glasses at the sun and steadied his Nikon camera behind it to snap
pictures.
"It
makes you feel like a small speck in the universe," he said.
In Mexico,
at least 100 people lined up two hours early to view the event through telescopes
or one of the 150 special viewing glasses on hand, officials said. Observation
points were also set up at a dozen locations.
Venus,
which is extremely hot, is one of Earth's two neighbours and is so close in
size to our planet that scientists at times call them near-twins. During the
transit, it appeared as a small dot.
This will
be the seventh transit visible since the German astronomer Johannes Kepler
first predicted the phenomenon in the 17th century. Because of the shape and
speed of Venus's orbit around the sun and its relationship to Earth's annual
trip, transits occur in pairs separated by more than a century.
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A Nasa image of the transit captured by the SDO satellite. Photograph:
Nasa/Getty Images
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It is
nowhere near as dramatic and awe-inspiring as a total solar eclipse, which
sweeps a shadow across the Earth, but there will be six more of those this
decade.
In Hawaii,
hundreds of tourists and locals passed through an area of Waikiki Beach where
the University of Hawaii set up eight telescopes and two large screens showing
webcasts of the transit as seen from telescopes at volcanoes on other Hawaiian
islands.
But minutes
after Venus crossed into the sun's path, clouds rolled overhead and blocked the
direct view.
"It's
always the challenge of being in Hawaii – are you going to be able to see
through the clouds?" said Greg Mansker, 49, of Pearl City, as he stood in
line at a telescope.
The
intermittent clouds did not stop people from looking up through filters, but it
did drive some to crowd the screens instead.
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Indian women watch the transit of Venus in Chennai. Photograph:
Nathan G/EPA
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Jenny Kim,
39, of Honolulu, said she told her 11-year-old son the planet's crossing would
be the only time he would get to see the transit in person.
"I
don't know what the future will be, so I think this will be good for him,"
Kim said as she took photos of the webcast with her smartphone.
Astronomers
also hosted viewings at Pearl Harbor and Ko Olina. In Maui, 20 couples renewed
their vows during a ceremony tied to the transit at the Hyatt Regency Maui, a
spokeswoman said.
Some
observers at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, gathered on a campus rooftop,
peering at Venus through special filtered glasses and telescopes.
"It's
not really spectacular when you're looking at it," Kellen Tyrrell, 13,
said. "It's just the fact that I'm here seeing it. It's just so cool that
I get to experience it."
Most people
do not tend to gaze at the sun for long periods of time because it's painful,
but there is a temptation to stare during sky shows such as solar eclipses or
transits of Venus.
The eye's
lens can concentrate direct sunlight on the retina and burn a hole through it –
similar to holding a magnifying glass under the blazing sun and setting fire to
a piece of paper.
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Venus is seen passing the sun behind clouds in Losevo, north of St Petersburg,
Russia. Photograph: Dmitry Lovetsky/AP
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It can take
several hours for people to notice problems with their eyes but, by that time,
the damage is done and, in some cases, is irreversible.
During the
1970 solar eclipse visible from the eastern US, 145 burns of the retina were
reported, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Experts
from Hong Kong's Space Museum and local astronomical groups were organising a
viewing on Wednesday outside the museum's building on the Kowloon waterfront
overlooking Victoria Harbour.
On the east
coast of the United States, the amateur astronomer Vince Sempronio was at a
viewing hosted by Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland, but clouds there
– as in many other places – limited visibility of the spectacle. Many at the
college viewing crowded around a laptop to watch the Nasa webcast instead of
the Venus move across the sun.
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Venus begins to cross the sun's face as seen from the west side of
Manhattan in New York. Photograph: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
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"I was
here at the same spot eight years ago when we had the last transit and I was
able to show people, using my telescope then. So I'm not too
disappointed," Sempronio said. "If modern science and medicine helps,
maybe I'll be around in 105 years to see the next one. But I'm not
crossing my fingers."
