243 years.
The event, which seems to be very exciting to some people, is hardly spectacular, amounting to nothing more than a small, dark spot moving slowly in front of a big, bright sun. It has only been recorded five times before, in the
18th and 19th centuries. In those earlier times, scientists tried to use the transit to gauge the distance between Earth and sun.
Venus is three and a half times bigger than the moon, but it is so far away it appears as only about 3% of the sun's diameter. It moves so steadily and predictably its position can be charted thousands of years ahead of time. As someone many years ago said, the universe runs ?like clockwork?, which is an allusion drawn from the invention of clocks, which work reliably and predictably thanks to beautifully designed . . .
In 2004, if you had sharp eyes, you might have seen Venus passing across the fiery disc of the sun. This was called a transit, and it comes as a double, with a second transit eight years after the first. The next part of the double transit is due in 2012, but after that you will have to leave it to someone else, alive in 2117, to observe the event. Nobody this side of Noah has lived long enough to see two (double) transits because they happen every
243 years.
The event, which seems to be very exciting to some people, is hardly spectacular, amounting to nothing more than a small, dark spot moving slowly in front of a big, bright sun. It has only been recorded five times before, in the
18th and 19th centuries. In those earlier times, scientists tried to use the transit to gauge the distance between Earth and sun.
Venus is three and a half times bigger than the moon, but it is so far away it appears as only about 3% of the sun's diameter. It moves so steadily and predictably its position can be charted thousands of years ahead of time. As someone many years ago said, the universe runs ?like clockwork?, which is an allusion drawn from the invention of clocks, which work reliably and predictably thanks to beautifully designed cogs and gears.
When Venus passed in front of the sun in 2004, it was one of the most widely observed astronomical events in history, but just prior to its happening many serious warnings were issued, telling people not to look at the sun with binoculars or a telescope without using an appropriate filter, because the effect would be instant blindness.
This alone is cause for consideration. On a sunny day people seldom look directly at the sun, yet they live under its bright rays without pausing for a moment to wonder at its glorious, fiery beauty. There it sits, hanging in space, radiating energy in almost unimaginable quantities in all directions, yet only a small fraction of this enormous bounty reaches Earth. If someone lived all their life in (bioluminescent) near darkness underground, and then, for one day, they were allowed to live in bright, warm sunshine above ground, what would they say about the sun?
How dull-minded humans have become, to not be continually amazed and astounded at such an object?
According to the Bible the planets were created at the same time as the sun and moon (Genesis 1:14-19) but after humans turned away from God, they stopped worshipping the Creator of heavenly these objects, and instead began to worship the objects themselves. Thus, about 6000 years ago, astrology was born. As Romans 1:21-25 says, ?Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened . . . Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature (the created things) more than the Creator.? There is a reference to ?planets? in the Bible. The kings of Judah ordained people to ?burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem? and to ?burn incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.? 2 Kings 23:5. This was undoubtedly no isolated case. Worshipping the planets was common to many cultures for centuries before that. Even today the zodiac charts appear in popular magazines and astrological predictions, and 'star signs? are commonplace. Man has not changed, despite his veneer of intellectualism and expansion in knowledge and science.
The transit of Venus also provides astronomers with an opportunity to develop techniques for detecting other planets outside our solar system. Hundreds have so far been detected, usually because of the slight wobble they cause to the star they orbit, but if a planet passes between us and the star it can cause the star to dim slightly.
One star, 153 light years from Earth dims by only 1.7% for three hours, but this was enough to give us a clue to its orbital plane and density.
Despite all we know about our universe, Man's understanding is still in its infancy. The universe, like our Earth, is a big place, and we might need for ever to really learn all there is to know about it, but while this is so, we can know the God who designed everything. It was this same God who sent His Son Jesus, to show us what He is like.
Richard Gunther, Copyright 2005