Transit of Venus, June 8, 2004

The most notable astronomical event of 2004 was the June 8th transit of Venus, the first in 122 years. Waking long before one of the earliest sunrises of the year, many members packed their equipment and headed for locations with an unobstructed east-northeastern horizon in order to see the sun rise. The transit was well underway at sunrise on the US East Coast, but there was still time to see 3rd and 4th contact.

With groups of Skyscrapers at Beavertail, Point Judith, and Brown University, as well as some members observing from favorable locations at home, clouds hampered early views for those watching from the shores of Narragansett Bay. The clouds did clear in time for 3rd contact, during which time we waited to see if we could detect the fabled “black drop effect.” While no one technically saw what had been described during past transits as a black drop right at the point of 3rd contact, many simply referred to the point of 3rd contact--when the edge of the silhouetted disk of Venus broke the edge of the illuminated disk of the sun—as the black drop.