1518 TRANSIT of VENUS

Visibility

Venus crossed the disc of the Sun on 1518 May 25^th-26^th. The map above shows the visibility of the event. The entire transit could have been seen from the north-western part of North America, the western half of the Hawaiian Islands, the islands of the western Pacific Ocean, Australia except the western part, south-eastern Asia, Russia except the western part and northern Scandinavia. The Sun set while the transit was in progress in the grey area encompassing North America except the north-western part, Central America, the north-western part of South America, the islands of the eastern Pacific Ocean and New Zealand. The Sun rose while the transit was in progress in the grey area taking in western Australia, south-western Asia, the Middle East, Africa except the western part and Europe including the British Isles. 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 1889.6 arcseconds and that of Venus is 57.7 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 around 505.3 arcseconds. The whole transit lasts just under seven hours.

All timings are given in Universal Time (UT).

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