Venus at superior conjucntion - the anti-transit

It's been interesting following the progress of Venus toward superior
conjuction over the last few weeks in the images from SOHO. It has now
appeared in the LASCO C2 view, and will apparently pass behind the Sun in a
few days. I was thinking of this as an anti-transit, when I realized we were
almost exactly halfway between the last transit of Venus (6/8/2004) to the
next one (6/6/2012). Given that the orbits of Venus and Earth are nearly
circular, it makes perfect sense that at this halfway point, Venus would be
almost exactly on the far side of the Sun. I love it when I find a bit of
order in the Universe.


--
Robert Welch
Alamdea, CA