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2004 Transit of Venus

Thessaloniki, Greece •June 8, 2004


transit of venus picture
The 2004 transit of Venus, image credit: Jay M. Pasachoff, David Butts, Joseph Gangestad, and Owen Westbrook
(Williams College Transit of Venus Team)
with John Seiradakis and George Asimellis (Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Greece);
expedition run with Bryce Babcock (Williams College) and Glenn Schneider (University of Arizona)



Published Papers

Tanga, P., T. Widemann, B. Sicardy, J. Pasachoff, J. Arnaud, L. Comolli, A. Rondi, S. Rondi, and P. Suetterlin, 2012, "Sunlight refraction in the mesosphere of Venus during the transit on June 8th, 2004," Icarus, March
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2011.12.004                   http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.3136

Pasachoff, Jay M., Glenn Schneider, and Thomas Widemann, 2011, "High-resolution satellite imaging of the 2004 transit of Venus and asymmetries in the Cytherean atmosphere," Astronomical Journal, Astronomical Journal: 141, 112.

Schneider, Glenn, Jay M. Pasachoff, and Richard C. Willson, 2006, "The Effect of the Transit of Venus on ACRIM's Total Solar Irradiance Measurements: Implications for Transit Studies of Extrasolar Planets," Astrophys. J. 641, 565-571. http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/641/1/565

Pasachoff, Jay M., Glenn Schneider, and Leon Golub, 2005, "The black drop effect explained," IAU Colloquium 196 on Transits of Venus: New Views of the Solar System and Galaxy (Cambridge Univ. Press). http://tinyurl.com/IAU196-ToV-PasSchGo

Schneider, Glenn, Jay M. Pasachoff, and Leon Golub 2004, "Space Observations of the 15 November 1999 Transit of Mercury and the Black Drop Effect for the 2004 Transit of Venus," Icarus 168, 249-256. weblink

Glenn Schneider, Jay M. Pasachoff, and Leon Golub, 2003, "Space Studies of the Black-Drop Effect at a Mercury Transit," Highlights of Astronomy 13, 70-72.

Links to our observations

2004 TRACE transit observations

full set of TRACE movies of the transit of Venus and of the orbits of TRACE and ACRIMsat

Links

TRACE stills and movies directly from Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Lab (LMSAL)

Observations from the Swedish Solar Telescope, La Palma

Images from the GONG project

European Southern Observatory's measurement of the Astronomical Unit

http://www.eso.org/public//outreach/eduoff/vt-2004/Background/Infol2/EIS-F1_pf.html

French National site for the 2004 and 2012 transits of Venus (in English)

Overview (clicking downloads a Word document)

Historical information and background

Results of the 2004 observations

Calculating the astronomical unit

Predictions for 2012 (in French)

Williams College Eclipse Expedition Image Galleries

Trip photos:
  The Williams College expedition team


Venus photos:
   Williams College Expedition images from Greece SBIG CCD on the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki's 20-cm refractor


Galleries of photos

http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/venustransit/gallery_08jun04.htm

http://www1.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_184.html

http://www1.nasa.gov/vision/universe/watchtheskies/venus_transit.html

http://vt-2004.kva.astro.su.se/

From HM Nautical Almanac Office, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, U.K.

European Southern Observatory's gallery and the determination of the Astronomical Unit



Images on Astronomy Picture of the Day

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040609.html

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040610.html

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040611.html

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040615.html

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040623.html

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040717.html


© Jay Pasachoff, Williams College Transit of Venus expedition team, and WIT 2004


The Williams College Team

in Greece:

Jay M. Pasachoff
Bryce A. Babcock
David Butts ‘06
Joe Gangestad ‘06
Owen Westbrook ’06
Alan Cordova '06
Kayla Gaydosh ’05
Rob Wittenmyer ’98

In Williamstown:

Steven Souza


all work in collaboration with:

Glenn Schneider, University of Arizona


in Greece in collaboration with:

John Seiradakis, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki


The expedition was sponsored by a grant from the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society. We also thank Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, for a student support grant.

We also thank WIT 2004, Sarah Croft '04, and Terry-Ann Suer '05 for their assistance.


Newspaper Articles

Science magazine, 5/15/04

Globe and Mail, Toronto, 5/16/04

Baltimore Sun, 5/17/04

The New York Times, 5/18/04

The Chronicle Section: Research & Publishing
Volume 50, Issue 36, Page A16

The Economist, 5/27/04

Boston Globe, 6/01/04 pdf or html

Associated Press article, 6/08/04

Links

European Southern Observatory's report including list of links

Daniel Fischer's list of links

Smithsonian Institution Lecture series in Washington Presented in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution Libraries exhibition "Chasing Venus: Observing the Transits of Venus, 1631-2004"; Speakers: Wilbur Applebaum, Richard Fisher, Steven Dick, Jay Pasachoff, David DeVorkin; arranged by Ron Brashear

Chuck Bueter's Site

 

Double transit of the International Space Station and Venus

Tomáš Maruška of Slovakia managed to image the ISS crossing the Sun while Venus was also in transit

Glenn Schneider did some processing of Tomáš Maruška's image

Airplanes and the transit of Venus

From James Dire, US Coast Guard Academy
dire@dcseq.uscga.edu


airplane and transit; Quicktime by Dr. James R. Dire, U.S. Coast Guard Academy

2004 map

Contact

Professor Jay Pasachoff (Jay.M.Pasachoff@williams.edu)
Williams College--Hopkins Observatory
33 Lab Campus Drive
Williamstown, MA 01267
(413) 597-2105; fax (413) 597-3200