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Venus transit in Paris, during a EU-HOU training session
During the European Comenius training session for teachers at Univ. Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris (4-8th June 2012), a group of motivated teachers and trainers went observing the transit of Venus at the top floor (24th floor) of the Zamansky tower, in the Jussieu campus. Unfortunately, the weather was not good enough to see the Sun. Nevertheless, watching the Sun rising over Paris was a beautiful moment, and we did have a great time :)
The transit of Venus is the passage of Venus across the Solar disc. It was expected in Paris between 5:50 (hours of sunrise in local time) and 6:40 (time of last contact). To be observable from Earth, the Sun, Venus and Earth should be in a particular configuration, which happens very rarely on the scale of a human life. Indeed, the next transit will not occur again before December 11, 2117.
The team included representatives of France, Italy, Portugal and UK!
The cloudy sky before sunrise, around 5h30 (local time).
5h50 (local time): The Sun rises behind the clouds
All waiting for the sky to clear a bit more....
Finally, we did observe Venus! But on a cell phone via a streaming video uploaded by NASA....
