1153 TRANSIT of VENUS

Visibility

Venus crossed the disc of the Sun on 1153 November 23^rd-24^th. The map above shows the visibility of the event. The entire transit could have been seen from the extreme western part of the United States, the south-western tip of South America, the easternmost part of the Hawaiian Islands, the islands of the eastern Pacific Ocean and Antarctica. The Sun set while the transit was in progress in the grey area encompassing the western parts of Africa, the south-western tip of the Iberian peninsula, North America except the westernmost part of the United States, Central and South America except the south-western tip. The Sun rose while the transit was in progress in the grey area taking in the islands of the western Pacific Ocean, Australasia, south-east Asia and eastern Russia. The yellow lines on the diagram show the position of the terminator, where the Sun is either rising or setting, at the key phases of the transit.

Geocentric Circumstances

The geocentric circumstances of the transit are shown in the diagram to the right. During the transit, the diameter of the Sun is 1950.7 arcseconds and that of Venus is 63.2 arcseconds. In other words, the diameter of Venus is 0.03 that of the Sun, making it look like a rapidly moving sunspot. The minimum separation between the centre of the solar disc and Venus was 307.7 arcseconds. The whole transit lasts just over seven and three quarter hours.

All timings are given in Universal Time (UT).

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HM Nautical Almanac Office UK Hydrographic Office E-mail: hmnao@nao.rl.ac.uk Last revision was made on 2007 November 5