Siliguri, Jun 6 : Sky watchers - both professional and amateur - in more than 20 countries today savoured century's second and last 'Transit of Venus' (ToV) or 'Sukra Pargaman' through a live webcast from eastern India.
"We could show the rare cosmic event for at least five hours since sunrise of the day due to clear sky," claimed Sky Watchers' Association of North Bengal's secretary Debasish Sarkar.
ToV is passage of Venus (Sukra Graha) through the face of the Sun.
Due to the unique correlation between orbits of Earth and Venus around the Sun, this takes place at a complicated cycle.
Mr Sarkar said they could show the rare cosmic event through a special solar telescope fitted with hydrogen alpha, which beamed from their Balurghat centre.
SWAN had set up five centres - Binaguri, Siliguri, Balurghat, Malda and Kolkata - equipped with hi-tech tools to webcast the astonomical happening.
SWAN's Balurghat centre, after collecting compiled pictures from four other centres, webcast live the event, to which more than 15,000 skywatchers from 20 countries responded enthusiatically, said Mr Sarkar.
ToV will occur after 105 years.
Set of two ToVs is separated by eight years, take place in a gap of 105 years and six months and then at 121 years and six months, explained Mr Sarkar.
The last ToV took place on June 8 2004 while the next one will occur on December 11, 2117. (UNI)
Post a Comment
We love to hear from you! What's on your mind?