Transit of Venus

Be sure to watch for the black drop effect, which occurs at about
7:06 a.m. from Washington, DC. This is probably the most interesting
transit-related phenomenon. Some authors are calling it "mysterious",
but the explanation has been long known. See the first item under
"Current News" in the ledt column at http://metaresearch.org. -|Tom|-


Tom Van Flandern - Washington, DC - see our web site on replacement
astronomy research at http://metaresearch.org

In article ,
Tom Van Flandern wrote:

Be sure to watch for the black drop effect, which occurs at about
7:06 a.m. from Washington, DC. This is probably the most interesting
transit-related phenomenon. Some authors are calling it "mysterious",
but the explanation has been long known. See the first item under
"Current News" in the ledt column at http://metaresearch.org. -|Tom|-

Check out the images of the Venus transit he

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

In particular, check the iamge taken at 11:07 UT --- no black drop
visible there.

These images were taken with the 1-meter Swedish Solar Telescope at
La Palma. Canary Islands. This telescope produces the sharpest
solar images in the world.

Also check the 11:12 and 11:15 UT images carefully: there you can see
another phenomenon although faintly: the part of Venus' limb outside
the solar disk is visible, due to sunlight refracted in Venus'
atmosphere.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter, Grev Turegatan 40, SE-114 38 Stockholm, SWEDEN
e-mail: pausch at stockholm dot bostream dot se
WWW: http://www.stjarnhimlen.se/
http://home.tiscali.se/pausch/

Paul Schlyter wrote:




Check out the images of the Venus transit he

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

In particular, check the iamge taken at 11:07 UT --- no black drop
visible there.

I don't see any teardrops either. Must be an artifact of the human eye.
I don't think
any pro astronomers ever look thru a telescope to do any real science
anymore.
And if they did, it's probably just to make sure the scope is ready to
photograph
it.


These images were taken with the 1-meter Swedish Solar Telescope at
La Palma. Canary Islands. This telescope produces the sharpest
solar images in the world.

Also check the 11:12 and 11:15 UT images carefully: there you can see
another phenomenon although faintly: the part of Venus' limb outside
the solar disk is visible, due to sunlight refracted in Venus'
atmosphere.

In article ,
Robert Casey wrote:
In particular, check the iamge taken at 11:07 UT --- no black drop
visible there.

I don't see any teardrops either. Must be an artifact of the human eye.

No, it has been photographed during transits of Mercury (which also proves
that it is not a result of Venus's atmosphere).
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |

In article ,
Henry Spencer wrote:

In article ,
Robert Casey wrote:

In particular, check the iamge taken at 11:07 UT --- no black drop
visible there.

I don't see any teardrops either. Must be an artifact of the human eye.

No, it has been photographed during transits of Mercury (which also proves
that it is not a result of Venus's atmosphere).

The Black Drop is an effect of how our eyes perceive when two unsharp
edges between bright and dark approach one another. It can be readily
simulated by keeping two of your fingers as close to your eye as you can
and then let the fingers approach one another: they seem to touch before
they actually touch.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter, Grev Turegatan 40, SE-114 38 Stockholm, SWEDEN
e-mail: pausch at stockholm dot bostream dot se
WWW: http://www.stjarnhimlen.se/
http://home.tiscali.se/pausch/

"Paul Schlyter" wrote in message
...

The Black Drop is an effect of how our eyes perceive when two unsharp
edges between bright and dark approach one another. It can be readily
simulated by keeping two of your fingers as close to your eye as you can
and then let the fingers approach one another: they seem to touch before
they actually touch.

is that the same thing as seeing the drop effect in front of the sun?
somebody else explained on here, i think it was at metaresearch.org
or something, that it is due to moving cells of air in the atmosphere.

rj

"Paul Schlyter" writes:

The Black Drop is an effect of how our eyes perceive when two unsharp
edges between bright and dark approach one another. It can be readily
simulated by keeping two of your fingers as close to your eye as you
can
and then let the fingers approach one another: they seem to touch
before
they actually touch.

They gave this example on NASA TV also, but it is a bit misleading
because the fingers effect is caused by diffraction (wave bending as a
sharp edge intervenes), whereas the black drop effect is caused by
variable refraction from moving air cells in Earth's atmosphere. Light
in space is not spread in this way, as is evident from photoelectric
observations of lunar occultations, which show the star disappearing in
milliseconds rather than seconds. (That effect really is caused by
diffraction.) -|Tom|-


Tom Van Flandern - Washington, DC - see our web site on replacement
astronomy research at http://metaresearch.org

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 03:49:59 +0000, Henry Spencer wrote:

In article ,
Robert Casey wrote:
In particular, check the iamge taken at 11:07 UT --- no black drop
visible there.

I don't see any teardrops either. Must be an artifact of the human eye.

No, it has been photographed during transits of Mercury (which also proves
that it is not a result of Venus's atmosphere).


I saw a photo of it yesterday on someone's web site.

Tom Randy wrote:
On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 03:49:59 +0000, Henry Spencer wrote:

In article ,
Robert Casey wrote:
In particular, check the iamge taken at 11:07 UT --- no black drop
visible there.

I don't see any teardrops either. Must be an artifact of the human eye.

No, it has been photographed during transits of Mercury (which also proves
that it is not a result of Venus's atmosphere).


I saw a photo of it yesterday on someone's web site.

As did I. Not everyone captured the effect, but it can be captured on
film. SWAG: an atmospheric effect?

--
Pat O'Connell
[note munged EMail address]
Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints,
Kill nothing but vandals...