ONE of the rarest of astronomical events will be visible from Cyprus today between 8.19am and 2.19pm when the planet Venus crosses the sun for the first time in 122 years in 1882.
However, the Fakas Institute has warned that people must be extremely careful not to look directly at the sun without special glasses.
Members of the public who wish to have a better view of the phenomenon can visit the Institute in Nicosia to observe it through a telescope, although it will be visible to the naked eye as a small black dot on the sun’s face.
Ioannis Fakas, head of the Institute, said special glasses should be worn.
“Sunglasses won’t do,” he said. “It’s very dangerous to look directly at the sun. It will destroy your eyes.”
The phenomenon was first predicted by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1627 four years before it happened, and has only occurred six times since the invention of the telescope. It will not happen again until June 2012, but will not then be seen in Europe or Africa.
Today’s event will be visible for six hours through Europe and most of Asia and Africa. The best view from Cyprus should be around the middle of the period.
According to British experts, when the transit starts, Venus will appear as a dot on one side of the Sun. By taking measurements as the planet tracks its way across the Sun and using the transit calculator, amateur astronomers will be able to work out the time it takes Venus to get from end to the other.
Although Kepler had predicted that Venus would transit the Sun in 1631, he never lived to see it. He had not calculated that it would occur again in 1639.
The next transit occurred in 1769, more than 100 years later and was so well documented by that point that co-ordinated international expeditions were organised to witness the event across the globe. Captain James Cook travelled to the South Pacific to view it from Tahiti.
When the next ones occurred in the 1870s and 1880s observatories and powerful telescopes were used to witness the event, which happens four times in every 243 years.
There are two December transits, eight years apart, and then 121.5 years later there are two June transits, also with an eight-year gap. After another 105.5 years, the cycle begins again.
“The transit of Venus will be a spectacular and memorable event. It represents a fantastic opportunity to fire the next generation of astrophysicists with enthusiasm for scientific discovery,” Professor Gordon Bromage, head of the University of Central Lancashire’s Centre for Astrophysics told Reuters.
