List of the Venus transits of the second millennium

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Photograph of the Venus transit from 1882

The list of the Venus transits of the second millennium contains all Venus transits from the years 1001 to 2000 that were visible from Earth.

Overview

Jeremiah Horrocks observes the Venus transit of 1639 (JW Lavender, 1903)

In the second millennium a total of 14 Venus transits occurred. The first transit took place on May 24, 1032, the last of this period on December 6, 1882. It is believed that all eight transits before 1631 were neither known nor observed. The first prediction of a transit was made by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1627, but he died in 1630, a year before the next transit. The French Pierre Gassendi also failed to observe the transit of December 7, 1631, as it could not be seen from his observation location in Paris . The first observation of a calculated transit took place on December 4, 1639. Jeremiah Horrocks observed the transit he had calculated in Lancashire , but from there could only see the beginning. All later transits were precisely calculated in advance and observed through partly large-scale expeditions in order, among other things, to precisely calculate the astronomical unit . For example, James Cook made his first South Seas voyage to observe the passage of Venus in 1769, which in Europe could only be seen at sunset, in the Pacific.

A Venus transit can occur either at the ascending or descending orbit node . The ascending node transits fell in late November or early December. This form of transit occurred a total of six times. As a result, there were eight descending node transits in the second millennium, each falling in late May or early June. During a transit Venus had an average minimum distance of 9 ′ 57.0 ″ from the center of the sun. The closest transit occurred in 1153, when Venus passed the Sun at a distance of 5 '7.6 "(about five times the apparent diameter of Venus' disk) from the center. It was furthest from the center in 1631 when it passed it at a minimal angle of 15 ′ 39.3 ″.

Almost all transits of this millennium occurred in pairs, with almost eight years between the transits. After such a transit pair, there was no further Venus transit for over 100 years. However, two transits fall out of this scheme: In the Venus transits of 1153 and 1396, there was no other transit eight years before or after. Although the lower conjunctions of 1145 and 1388 would actually have fallen into the scheme of the “eight pairs”, Venus, viewed from Earth, passed above or below the solar disk during these times, so no transit could be observed from Earth .

Legend

Note: All times are given in UTC .

  • Date : The date is given in the Gregorian calendar from the year 1582 , before 1582 the Julian calendar , which was in use until then, is used. For transits that extend over two days, the date of the middle of the transit (in UTC) is given.
The scheme of the four contacts
  • Beginning: The first contact of the Venus disk with the sun represents the beginning of the transit. The time (UTC) is given for all contacts
  • II. Contact: On the second contact, the planet's disk is completely in front of the sun for the first time.
  • Middle: The middle of the transit is the time at which the transit is closest to the center of the sun.
  • III. Contact: On the third contact, the planet's disk is completely in front of the sun for the last time, after which the disk begins to exit.
  • End: The end of the transit is also known as the fourth contact. Here Venus has completely stepped out of the sun.
  • Minimum distance to the center: The minimum apparent distance that the disk of Venus has during the greatest transit from the center of the sun. The distance is - as usual with astronomical observations - in the apparent size , measured in angular minutes - and seconds .
  • Visibility Area : The area in which the full transit was visible. In addition, the areas are named where the transit was only partially visible. It could be seen either at sunrise (only the end of the transit was visible) or at sunset (only the beginning was visible).
  • Source: Names a source for the visibility area. There is a map of this area in each case. All other data comes from NASA's website (see below).

list

date Beginning II. Contact center III. Contact The End Minimal
distance
to the center 		Visibility area source
May 24, 1032 15:18 15:34 19:03 22:32 22:48 6 ′ 13.4 ″ Complete: North and Central America, Eastern Pacific, Greenland, Iceland, North Asia

At sunrise: East Asia, Australia, Oceania
At sunset: South America, Europe, Africa

May 22, 1040 10:02 10:29 12:23 14:18 14:45 13 ′ 11.8 ″ Complete: Europe, Africa, West Asia, Atlantic, West of North and South America

At sunrise: Central America, East of North and South America.
At sunset: East and Southeast Asia

November 23, 1153 16:45 17:01 20:38 00:15 00:31 5 ′ 7.6 ″ Complete: Polynesia, South Pacific, West Coast of North America, Antarctica

At sunrise: East Asia, Australia, Eastern Oceania, South Alaska.
At sunset: North and South America, Atlantic, West Africa

May 25, 1275 19:00 19:17 22:37 01:57 02:14 7 ′ 24.9 ″ Complete: Northwest America, Oceania, Northeast Asia

At sunrise: South Asia, Australia, Western Oceania.
At sunset: Central and South America, Western Europe

May 23, 1283 13:04 13:27 15:44 18:01 18:25 12 ′ 13.6 ″ Complete: America, Europe, Northwest Africa

At sunrise: East Pacific.
At sunset: South and East Africa, Arabia, Central Asia

November 23, 1396 15:43 16:00 19:25 22:49 23:06 7 ′ 4.3 ″ Complete: Central America, Western North and South America, Eastern Pacific, Antarctica

At sunrise: Japan, Australia and Oceania.
At sunset: West Africa, eastern North and South America, Iberian Peninsula

May 26, 1518 22:28 22:45 01:56 05:06 05:24 8 ′ 25.3 ″ Complete: Australia, Western Oceania, North and Central Asia, Alaska

At sunrise: Europe, Eastern Africa, Western Asia
At sunset: Eastern Pacific, North and Central America

May 23, 1526 16:13 16:34 19:11 21:48 22:08 11 ′ 6.7 ″ Complete: North and Central America, Eastern Pacific, Greenland, Iceland, North Asia

At sunrise: Eastern Asia, Australia, Oceania
At sunset: Eastern South America, Europe, Africa

0December 7, 1631 03:51 04:59 05:19 05:40 06:47 15 ′ 39.3 ″ Complete: Central and South Asia, Eastern Africa, Australia, Antarctica

At sunrise: Central Africa.
At sunset: Central Pacific

04th December 1639 14:57 15:15 18:25 21:36 21:54 8 ′ 43.6 ″ Complete: Central North America, Central and South America, Antarctica

At sunrise: Australia, Oceania
At sunset: Africa, Western Europe, Labrador Peninsula

0June 6, 1761 02:02 02:20 05:19 08:18 08:37 9 ′ 30.4 ″ Complete: Asia, Scandinavia

At sunrise: Africa, Western and Central Europe
At sunset: Oceania, North America

0June 3, 1769 19:15 19:34 22:25 01:16 01:35 10 ′ 9.3 ″ Complete: North America, Oceania, Northeast Asia

At sunrise: Central and South Asia, Australia
At sunset: Central and South America, UK

0December 9, 1874 01:49 02:19 04:07 05:56 06:26 13 ′ 49.9 ″ Complete: Southeast Asia, China, Australia, Western Pacific, Antarctica

At sunrise: Africa, Central Asia, Arabia.
At sunset: Polynesia, Central Pacific

0December 6, 1882 13:57 14:17 17:06 19:55 20:15 10 ′ 37.3 ″ Complete: Central and South America, Eastern North America, Antarctica

At sunrise: Oceania
At sunset: Europe, Africa

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Peter Cattermole, Patrick Moore: Atlas of Venus . Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1997, 1st publ., 143 pp. ISBN 0-521-49652-7 , pp. 17-18
  2. ^ Fred Espenak: Six Millennium Catalog of Venus Transits , accessed January 17, 2012
  3. ^ Transit of Venus at the HM Nautical Almanac Office, accessed on January 3, 2012
  4. ↑ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1032 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  5. ↑ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1040 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  6. ↑ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1153 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  7. ↑ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1275 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  8. ↑ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1283 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  9. ^ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1396 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  10. ↑ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1518 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  11. ^ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1526 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  12. ↑ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1631 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  13. ↑ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1639 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  14. ^ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1761 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  15. ^ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1769 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  16. ^ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1874 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
  17. ↑ HM Nautical Almanac Office: 1882 Transit of Venus , accessed January 3, 2012
This version was added to the selection of informative lists and portals on January 24, 2012 .