VenusTransit
Astronomers Without Borders

May 24th, 2012

Price: Free

Category: Education

Updated: May 24, 2012

Version: 1.3

Size: 2.9 MB

Language: English

Seller: Steven van Roode

Rated 4+

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Customer Ratings

Current Version

(9 Ratings)

All Versions

(20 Ratings)

VenusTransit by Astronomers Without Borders

VenusTransit Screenshots

Description

This app will be of great help in your observation of the transit of Venus on June 5 and 6, 2012, when the planet Venus is seen in front of the Sun for the very last time this century.
US USERS:
THE DATE FORMAT IS D-M (so please note!)
Before the transit, you can find out what part of the transit will be visible from your location and at what time the transit will start and end.
Also, you can practise the measuring of the contact times (when the limbs of Venus and the Sun seem to touch) using a simulation of the transit.

During the transit, the phone app enables you to participate in a world-wide experiment: when the measurements of the times of contact from across the world are combined, the distance to the Sun may be found. This experiment was also performed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries' transits of Venus, and is now repeated with the tools of our modern age.
Using the timer, when you touch the phones screen at the moment of internal contact (when Venus appears within the Sun, just touching the Suns edge), the app will record the exact GPS time and your location, which then will be sent to the global database.

After the transit, you can access your submitted data on map on our website, edit the entry, and upload descriptions, text, images, or movies. This way, an interactive depository of our transit experiences is created: the one place to look for results, pictures and personal stories of the 2012 transit of Venus, and a unique tool for science classes as well! At the same time, it will provide for a time capsule for our descendants to discover when the twenty-first centurys transits of Venus are taking place.

What's New in Version 1.3

Calculation screen: fixes a minor issue with non-integer timezones.

Customer Reviews

Instructions? (2 stars)
Do I start timing when Venus first touches, or when it gets inside? Similarly on exit. It would be nice to have instructions inside the application.

Is the simulation real-time?

Great App (5 stars)
Awesome app tells you when to see the transit of Venus based on where you are [(dd/mm) format]. Also the simulation mode lets you practice exactly when to record. 5 stars.

Watch that date! (3 stars)
Be careful- in the continental US, the event takes place on June 5.