The news ran a story about how in the 1700's a transit was used to determine the distance from the earth to sun. With their crude instruments they came within a few thousand miles of the distance we know today.
This article seems to reinforce the interest in the arc of venus. Here you go Rodger, good call:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/The-Exoplanet-Venus-155964305.html
On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 9:01 AM, Rodger C. Fry <rcfry@comcast.net> wrote:
All,
I was wondering if anyone has heard of any university or observatory that have research planned around the transit of Venus. It seems to me that it would be a great time for a comparative study of the change in light curve of the Sun at the Venus transit and compare this with Earth-like exo-planet transits. Also, I think it would be a good time to do spectroscopic studies of Venus' atmosphere with the sun behind it with today's technology. Has anyone heard of this being done?
Thanks
Rodger Fry
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