The Transit of Venus

One of our photos of the Transit of Venus taken with the NASA OWN MicroObservatory telescope.

Wow!  Did you see it?  The planet Venus orbited between Earth and the Sun yesterday.  When a planet crosses in front of the sun, it is called a transit.  Venus will not transit again for another 105 years!

We couldn't see the transit from our house, but we logged on to NASA OWN and set the telescope to take photos from the MicroObservatory.  (To learn more about how you can take free photos from NASA OWN, just check out my November 5, 2009 post, Beautiful Moon.)  

We also watched NASA's video of the transit.  It is amazing and so beautiful to watch!  If you would like to watch the video, just click below.

The video was taken from the NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.  It is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed by scientists.  It was built to study the sun.  The spacecraft was launched on February 11, 2010.  It was designed to have a five year mission.

During its mission, the spacecraft will discover information about the sun's atmosphere.  It will help us to understand the sun's magnetic field.  It will help us to understand how the sun and Earth work together.  If you would like to learn more about the Solar Dynamics Observatory, just click here:  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/main/index.html

Video of Venus Transit courtesy of NASA.