Hundreds view transit of Venus over sun

Hundreds of people in Ahmedabad on Tuesday viewed transit of Venus over sun, a celestial event occurring after 122 years.

Gujarat Science City, which is working under the aegis of the department of Science and Technology of the government of Gujarat, had arranged safe viewing of transit of Venus across the sun between 9.30 am and 5 pm on Tuesday.

The transit was visible in Ahmedabad from about 10.45 am to 4.56 pm.

"Tremendous enthusiasm was seen among visitors at Gujarat Science City. The visitors could see the transit of Venus through a telescopic projection that we arranged," J N Singh, member-secretary of Gujarat Science City and secretary, department of Science and Technology, government of Gujarat, said.

Singh and a number of senior state government officials and other visitors to witnessed the event.

Eminent planetary scientists from the city-based Physical Research Laboratory, Astronomy Club and amateur astronomers were also present at the Science City to interact with students and visitors.

"We made special arrangements to observe the event by projecting the image of the disc of the Sun on to a white screen using a small telescope," said Sanjay Agarwal, chief executive officer, Gujarat Science City.

"Mylar sheets, neutral density filter or the welder's glass of shade number 14 can be used to view the transit. These can be held in front of the lens as well as the view finder of the telescope for viewing the transit," said Narottam Sahoo, scientist at Gujarat Science City.

The Gujarat Science City had conducted a one-day training programme for science communicators of the state on last Sunday to make the event more popular and educative.

Over 80 science communicators and teachers from various districts of the state attended the training programme.

They were educated about the 'science discovery programme of the planetary transition'.

The Science City also distributed 'Venus transition kits' to the participants who were to carry out similar activities across the state.

Venus is the second planet in the solar system after Mercury. In a transit, one celestial body is seen moving past another bigger, moving body.

From the seventeenth century onwards, Venus transits provided observers with data that eventually led to a very close estimate of the distance between the earth and the sun.

This measure is crucial for astronomers because all other distance determinations in the universe ultimately depend on this value.