Venus Transit on June 5, 2012

Photo by Bonnie Bley copyright 2012

If you missed it, here it is!  The Transit of Venus.  A rare celestial event, but one that the Maya cherished and celebrated.  Earth, Venus, and the sun lined up, with Venus crossing between the sun and earth.  This photo was taken by my Nikon D80 attached to a telescope with a solar lens. 

The first scientific observation of a Venus Transit was in 1639.  Other Venus Transits happened in 1761 & 1769, 1874 & 1882, and then again in 2004 & 2012.  One part of the world sees the transit the first year and then the other half of the world sees it the second time,  so unless you are traveling to opposite ends of the earth you will only witness one of the pairs of the Venus Transit.  1639 was the last Transit of Venus documented before the invention of the telescope in the modern world. 

The Maya weren't the only Venus worshipers.  Ancient Romans, Greeks, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Chinese also tracked Venus cycles, but none had as precise tables as the ancient Maya. 

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