Venus Transit

What is it?

It's a rare celestial phenomenon when the planet Venus locates in between the Earth and the Sun, such that observers on the Earth can see it passing through the Sun. It's indeed rare, as a pair of Venus transits, happen almost every 120 years. The last pair occurred in 2004 and 2012. I am glad that I was able to observe both. Due to the inclination of the Earth and the Venus orbit, it takes this long so that such transit happens. If there was no inclination, then we would see Venus Transit quite frequently. 

I observed the first one in the Zafaranieh observatory (2004) and the second one on the roof of our house (2012).

The photo I took in 2012 using my digital camera

Past transits

Prior to the pair of transits we experienced a few years ago, there were transits in the late 1800s. William Harkness, an astronomer at US Naval Observatory was one of the people who observed the transit in 1882, he was wondering about how the world looks like in June 2004, when the next transit will occur. Below is his quote:

"There will be no other till the twenty-first century of our era has dawned upon the Earth and the June flowers are blooming in 2004. What will be the state of science — God only knows.", William Harkness.

The next transit will be in Dec 2117 and will be visible in Australia, Eastern China, Japan, Western US, and Canada. I won't be available to watch it, but curious to know what the state of technology will be then. Are the streets filled with autonomous vehicles? How global warming has affected people's lives? Are there still glaciers in Alaska? Is Internet and cellphone reception still an issue in remote areas? Has the man landed on Mars?