La Trobe’s focus on transit of Venus

La Trobe University’s Observatory in Melbourne’s north has tracked the planet Venus as it moves across the face of the Sun today.

It  streamed the event live via the University website as a service for schools, amateur astrologers and other interested parties.

The transit is an event of special significance for Australia, says Professor Paul Pigram, Head of Physics in the School of Science, Technology and Engineering.

James Cook mapped the east coast of Australia, claiming it for the Crown while on a scientific expedition to study the transit of Venus, to learn more about the distances of planets and our solar system. 

The event is being embraced in school classrooms across the country for lessons relevant to subjects ranging from astronomy, geometry and surveying to history, botany, zoology and geology.

Two telescopes operated from La Trobe’s Bundoora observatory, from 8.30am until 2.45pm on Wednesday.

The University’s new Takahashi telescope is fitted with a red (Hydrogen-alpha) filter and the Meade telescope with a standard metal film sun filter. 

The filters provide a safe and exciting way to watch the transit. They are expected to show surface granulation on the Sun and solar flares as Venus travels across the face of the Sun.

Professor Pigram says the new Takahashi telescope is the largest of its type in Melbourne’s north, ten times as powerful as the model it replaces. It is pre-programmed to seek out galaxies hundreds of millions of light years away.

Read more about the Observatory on La Trobe University’s Melbourne campus : latrobeuniversitybulletin.com/2011/06/08/la-trobe-observatory-commissions-new-telescope/

Media enquiries:  Ernest Raetz, Media and Communications, T: 041 226 1919,  e.raetz@latrobe.edu.au