Once again we return to Space Exploration!
All eyes have been firmly trained on Mars after the invasion fleet of Probes last year (see the Away Missions of Away Team Baruca) however this month Venus steps for a while into the limelight.
On Tuesday, June 8th, those of us with telescopes and solar filters were able to see one of the most spectacular scenes of the movement of the planets in the heavens - the planet Venus as it appeared to move across the face of the Sun. This was the much anticipated Transit of Venus and in fact it was the planet moving between us on the Earth and the Sun.
You missed it? So did I! I was called in by the Academy Commandant to discuss Ensign J'Keln's performance and so missed the whole transit. I snuck in some time on the compter in the Academy's library to watch part of the Live coverage of the transit in Australia. I was unable to get the Official CSIRO to work at the time. Could have had something to with being mentioned on Slashdot! However I did get a look at the live feed from a privately owned & run observatory in Ballerat, Vic.
If you look at them you might notice that the CSIRO video shows Venus coming in from the lower right of the face of the sun whereas the Ballarat photos show it coming in from the top left! I wonder why that is? Stay tuned, I'll post more as the week goes on!
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