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SOHO Venus Transit

2004 June 8 08:21-19:05 UT


This web page is used to distribute tecnical information regarding the Venus Transit on June 8, 2004, as seen from SOHO. The web page with information to the general public will be available here. Below is a path prediction based on the final predictive orbit determination (including effects of ESRs 20-23). The ephemeris includes effects of light-travel-time. The quadratic approximation quoted in the figure deviates up to about 0.1" from the underlying ephemeris within the EIT field of view. It should not be used for pointings outside of this.

The times TI and TIV mark the times for the entry/exit of the center of Venus in EIT's field of view.

The IDL function venus_point can be used to look up/interpolate the position before, during and after the transit (between 2004/06/06 19:30 UT and 2004/06/10 08:40 UT). Also needed: ephemeris file (must be in current working directory), and venus_ephem.pro, in a standard SolarSoft environment. NOTE: The software has been updated to deal with the new, longer ephemeris. If you have an older version, make sure to overwrite it with the new one!

For details on the transit as seen from Earth, see Fred Espenak's Transit of Venus page.


PostScript, PDF
The DSN schedule for the event is:
  2004/06/07 1710-0105 UT DSS-27

  2004/06/08 0450-1330 UT DSS-66
  2004/06/08 1310-0115 UT DSS-16

  2004/06/09 0440-0720 UT DSS-66
If you have any questions, please contact soc@soc.nascom.nasa.gov.