Venus Transit Continues To Draw Public Interest and Involvement

More than 54 million hits to the European Southern Observatory's Venus Transit 2004 (VT-2004) web site in an 8-hour period during the latest transit testify to the level of public interest in space. As do the many transit-inspired works of art, writing, photography, websites, and music. But the public involvement is more than just cultural, it's also scientific. Over 1300 observing teams have already provided approximately 3700 contact times for the transit, helping to more accurately define the measurement of the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun, referred to as the Astronomical Unit (AU). These timing inputs to the VT-2004 database will be accepted from observing teams until 10 July, 2004.

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