2012 Transit of Venus

2012 Transit of Venus image.On a balmy afternoon in Hawaii, as a good portion of the world saw Venus appear in front of the Sun, we had excellent viewing for the entire six-hour transit. Above is a multiple exposure image showing the path of the Venus transit across the Sun, in extreme UV light. This image is from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite (click the image for more information). Hawai’i Space Grant personnel were involved in different Transit of Venus activities in the same state. Photos shown below, form the June 5 activities at UH Manoa, courtesy of HSGC Program Coordinator Marcia Rei Sistoso.

  • HSGC Associate Director Joe Ciotti (Windward Community College) mentored Nathan Hiraoka and Sam Plunkett, two students and astronomy interns at the WCC Center for Aerospace Education, in a time-lapse photographic study of the transit.
  • Jeff Taylor (HSGC Associate Director for Space Science) and Linda Martel (HSGC communications) helped the Dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) host a viewing party on the UH Manoa campus. From noon to 1 p.m. folks gathered to see the start and early stages of the transit and enjoyed the special solar viewers. They also watched a video about the geology of Venus prepared by Taylor and Martel and a live feed of the telescope-view of the transit from Mauna Kea by NASA Edge shown on the SOEST high-definition video wall.
  • HSGC Associate Director Joe Wilcox (Hawai‘i Community College) was on the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa with visiting astronomers from Oregon and Belgium

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