For more information, see
http://www.jupiterscientific.org/sciinfo/astronews.html
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Actually, the last June transit of Venus was in 1769 (before that in 1761).
The transits of 1874 and 1882 were in December.
The latter was 121.5 years before this year's transit.
Venus transits can only occur within a day or two (depending on the leap
year calendar, among other things) of the dates when the earth aligns with
Venus' nodes - June 7 and December 8. Venus will traverse the northern limb
of the sun on a slight downward angle (about 3°23'38"). In eight years
(June 2012) it will repeat on the southern limb. Then no more until
December of 2133.
Tom Davidson
Richmond, VA
OK. I 'fess up. Nobody seems to have caught my error and deemed it worthy
of comment, however. My 'back of the envelope' calculations were off.
I have found this site since I posted that gaffe:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/venus0412.html
The transit of June 2012 will be followed by a December transit in 2117 (on
the 11th).
Tom Davidson
Richmond, VA