PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT Ventura County Astronomical Society February Meeting Organization: VENTURA COUNTY ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY Contact Person: Carl Ashley, Publicity Chairman Contact Phone: (805) 642-5166 Email: vcas1@aol.com Website: www.vcas.org Subject: Venus Transit, Across the Sun Date of event: Friday, February 20, 2004 Time of Event: 7:30 PM Location of Event: Moorpark College, Forum Auditorium For recorded information: contact Starline at (805) 520-9666 The Ventura County Astronomical Society (VCAS) will hold its monthly membership meeting on Friday, February 20th at 7:30 PM in the Forum Auditorium on the Moorpark College campus. The speaker for that evening will be Mr. Joel Harris, President of Twilight Tours Inc, of Westlake Village, and Trustee of the Orange County Astronomers. Harris will be speaking on the topic of an even rarer celestial event than solar eclipses ---- the first transit of the planet Venus across the disk of our Sun in over 122 years. As the last such transit occurred back in 1882, no one alive today has ever witnessed a Venusian Transit. Harris will discuss the history of transits, their astronomical importance, the region of visibility for this years transit, and his plans to personally observe the event (when it occurs this June 8th ). Mr. Harris, a 30-year amateur astronomer, published author, and avid solar eclipse chaser with some 14 total and 3 annular eclipses to his credit, is a Senior Engineer at Raytheon Corporation, in El Segundo, CA. Harris has co-written a book on the topic of eclipse observing, travel, and photography, released in 1994, titled Chasing the Shadow - An Observers Guide to Observing Eclipses. The public is invited to share in this educational and enjoyable evening.
Copyright © 2004, Brian Webb. All rights reserved.