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our last Transit of Venus (teaser) from Lightcurve Films on Vimeo.
On June 5, 2012 in the US and June 6, 2012 in Europe, a transit of Venus across the face of the Sun will be visible from many parts of the world. This is a very unusual and exciting event and another transit of Venus won’t be visible from Earth for another 120 years. And so, this has been called the last transit of our time, as likely no one alive today will still be around in 120 years. A transit can tell us more about Venus, the Sun and give us more information about finding extrasolar planets. A group of filmmakers from the Netherlands are working on a documentary of this event, and they are looking for professional and amateur astronomers and historians to participate.
“The film will highlight three groups of people: scientists who will observe the Transit to study Venus and exoplanets, amateurs and students who will redo the experiment of determining the size of the Solar System and professional and/or amateur historians with the intention to observe the Transit with 18th and 19th century instruments,” say the filmmakers from Lightcurve Films. “Feel free to contact us about the project if you are interested to collaborate.”
Watch their trailer, above, and find out more information on their website, including videos of four top scientists (Paolo Tanga, Jean-Eudes Arlot, Louis Mayo and Jay Pasachoff) talking about the transit.
About Nancy Atkinson
Nancy Atkinson is Universe Today's Senior Editor. She also is the host of the NASA Lunar Science Institute podcast and works with the Astronomy Cast and 365 Days of Astronomy podcasts. Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador.
