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»Overview »Project Groups »Schedule »Publications
» Private Discussion Board (Request for access to private discussion board Venus 2004)
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Name of the Group (responsible) | Main Tasks and Results |
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| Project Management | Andreas Inderbitzin, president of the Astronomical Society of Zurich AVZ, is the primary person to be adressed to ref. all questions concerning the project Venus 2004. The project manager is, e.g., responsible for conducting the plenary sessions. He accepts suggestions as to the points to be discussed. |
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History, Statistics
(Dr. Andreas Verdun) |
By consulting the original publications, get to know the history of Venus transits and the various methods of observation and evaluation and transpose them into our present day conditions. Provide the statistical foundations (procedures, forms, ...) for the evaluation (of a large number) of observational data.
The history group has first reported on the large scale explorations in 1761 and 1769, in particular on the travels of Le Gentil. For various reasons these endevours were not successful: inaccuracies in determining the geographical position; the black drop effect; inadequate kinematic models; lack of statistical methods.
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Kinematics
(Renato Hauswirth) |
Taking advantage of the means available to the present day amateur, comprehend the kinematics of a Venus transit and from the predicted/measured times of contact (from several geographically different places) determine the astronomical unit in (mathematical) closed form (including estimates for the error in AU as a function of the precision of the times of contact).
Several people in this group (H. Blatter, F. Messmer, R. Hauswirth) followed up Halley’s ideas (cf. internet adress below). The result is that amateurs today can determine the AU in good quality by measuring the contact times (in particular 2nd and 3rd contact) at observation points that are as far apart as possible (e.g. Europe and South Africa). The accuracy will be determined essentially by the accuracy of the times of contact.
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Instruments, Observation
(Marc Eichenberger) |
Compile a list of sites for observation and of the instruments, establish the Observation Record in cooperation with the group Evaluation and the corresponding manuals for the observation and compilation of the observational data.
Various problems facing an observer have been discussed, in particular the Black Drop Effect. This seems to have seriously impaired earlier observations of the contact times.
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Evaluation, Results
(Hugo Jost) |
In cooperation with the group Instruments/Observation establish the Observation Record and the corresponding manuals for the observation and compilation of the observational data. Prepare (in consideration of the statistical foundation of the group History and Statistics) the processing of the observational data, establish the work flow, design the evaluation to determine the the AU (including estimation of the error).
It has been decided to do the evaluation of the data centrally, that is, all observations have to be submitted to Hugo Jost who is working on the procedures to evaluate the data.
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Contacts
(vacant)
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Establish contact to amateur astronomers outside the project (in particular South Africa and Germany), explain the project, and motivate to cooperate. Provide help in translating (into English) of the „Observation Record“ and the manuals for the amateur astonomers abroad. Later on: contact the media in Switzerland (print and TV).
Contacts have been established with Germany and South Africa and we intend to contact La Réunion as well, where an observatory is located with which Swiss astronomers have had contact in the past.
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Astroinfo
(Dr. Roland Brodbeck and Arnold Barmettler) |
In cooperation with the project maintain an information platform within the
internet portal astro!info of the society Astroinfo
(www.astronomie.ch / .info / www.CalSKY.com) .
taking advantage of the
professional (mainly the theoretical knowledge and foundations) possibilities of the members of Astroinfo.
CalSKY.com and www.astronomie.info are portals in the internet dedicated to the astro amateurs. The project is represented there under www.astronomie.info/projectvenus. - This report is in part a translation of what is to be found in German and it will also be made available there. –Several articles as well as the Observation Record can be downloaded from www.astronomie.info/projectvenus/pub.html. |
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