School’s Venus Transit Festival a once in a lifetime event
They called it a Venus Transit Festival and, despite the poor weather, they celebrated every break in the clouds because it won’t return until 2117.
The transit of Venus as viewed on Lachlan Rogers’ modified solar telescope. Credit: Lachlan Rogers.
The School of Science and Mathematics at Avondale College of Higher Education hosted the festival on the morning of June 6 when the planet Venus came directly between earth and the sun. “We saw it on our modified solar telescope as a black dot on the disk of the sun,” says associate lecturer Lachlan Rogers.
More than 100 people, including Year 9 and 10 students from Heritage College in Cooranbong, joined Lachlan and father Lynden, a senior lecturer in physics. The viewing formed part of Avondale’s Open Day, a “happy coincidence,” says Lachlan.
The event is of more than just scientific significance: it is tied with Australian history. In 1766, the Royal Society sent English navigator Captain James Cook to the Pacific Ocean to observe and record the transit of Venus. Cook viewed the transit from Tahiti then sailed to New Zealand and to Australia, becoming the first European to explore and map its east coast.
“Humans have always been fascinated by the night sky,” says Lachlan. “Looking into it through a telescope reveals even more of the beauty and wonder of our universe. Astronomy provides an awesome and humbling perspective on even the grandest our human activities.”
Contact Lachlan ([email protected]) to receive notification of astronomy events or follow the Science@Avondale page on Google+.