Heavenly Transits

This article provides a wealth of new terms and an understanding of some older ones. Learning about the apparent movement of the sun, Venus and Earth leads to an understanding of the transi... See More

This article provides a wealth of new terms and an understanding of some older ones. Learning about the apparent movement of the sun, Venus and Earth leads to an understanding of the transit of these heavenly bodies. From this you learn about ‘inferior conjunction.’ You also learn about patterns of transit as well as timing of them and how these transits can lead to discovery of new worlds. Sprinkled into this is some historical information. This seems like much more than what is usually discussed in the middle grades but nevertheless it is interesting.

All about transits

This article answers every question an avid amateur astronomer would want to know about the June 5, 2012 transit of Venus. Although a little technical, it begins by explaining why there will... See More

This article answers every question an avid amateur astronomer would want to know about the June 5, 2012 transit of Venus. Although a little technical, it begins by explaining why there will be a Venus transit and it’s importance (based upon Keplar’s Laws of Planetary Motion). It also discusses how NASA uses Kepler’s Law III to discover how far exoplanets are from their suns. Further into the article, the authors advise how students can begin their observations of Venus in preparation of its June 5th transit. The authors also discuss the Lunar eclipse a few weeks earlier; it’s best viewing locations and why it is occurring. A list of possible questions to pose for students as well as a calendar of important “Space Dates” for the months of April and May are included. Also included is a very extensive list of web resources. For the “Astronomy Geek” and anyone wishing to know more about the upcoming Venus transit, this is the article for you. Everything you need to know about it is included in the article and the resources listed are awesome.