Venus Transit: Halo Seen

"Tom Polakis" wrote in message
om...
(Paul Schlyter) wrote:

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

That is an interesting result. Why do you think Venus brightens so
much when it is in line with the sun? The SOHO images showed the
planet fading significantly as it approached the sun's limb. If it
really does brighten near transit as you say, a plot of brightness
versus distance from the sun would be worth many thousands of words!


The fact that on SOHO mpeg Venus is dark and almost undistinguable before
12h TU is a pure technical problem with the CCD of SOHO.
The sunlight scattered on the mirrors of the scope has, like in many cases,
reached CCD that should, normally, only receive the light from the solar
corona, hence the reduction of light.
If scientifically speaking such a transit is today without much interest, in
this special case, it allowed to calculate the ligh scattering by SOHO
mirrors.

Thierry
http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry

Tom