The bright "star" visible these
evenings in the spring of 2004 is the planet Venus. Venus should
become even more brilliant throughout the next month as it gets closer
to the earth. At the end of May Venus will disappear in the glare
of the sun, then be visible in the morning as a brilliant morning
"star" before sunrise in mid June. Astronomers have a rare treat
this year, however, because when Venus is between the earth and the
sun, a rare alignment allows Venus to pass directly in front of the
sun, and telescopes equipped with solar filters will be able to view
the first transit of Venus since 1882. The June 8 Venus transit
is best viewed from Europe and Africa. Northeastern North America
will be able the see the tail end of the event at sunrise.The photo here is a stack of 10 digital frames photographed by Amanda Grover on April 16, 2004. Each frame was exposed for 15 seconds, then all the frames were aligned and stacked to give a better exposure. Because the sky moves during the five minute interval, the building (Spidel) appears blurred. The camera was on a fixed tripod. The glow in the lower right is glow from Asheville city lights. Spidel is illuminated by various campus lights.
If Venus is examined with a telescope, the
planet resembles the moon in a crescent phase. See the image at
right photographed by Donald Collins. The phase of Venus is
caused by the angle between the sun, Venus, and earth - analogous to
the lunar phases caused by a similar angle. Galileo was the first
astronomer to discover the phases of Venus more than 300 years ago with
his little telescope. Galileo's observation greatly contributed
to the Copernican theory of the sun-centered solar system. This
photo was obtained on April 16, 2004 at Warren Wilson College using an
8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, a web-cam, and software
(K3CCDTOOLS written by Peter
Katreniak)Donald F. Collins