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Old June 6th 12, 03:10 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
William Hamblen[_3_]
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Posts: 12
Default OT Venus transit today

On 6/5/2012 6:55 PM, Bastette wrote:
---MIKE--- wrote:

For those with clear skies (not here) you can observe the planet Venus
cross in front of the sun this afternoon. It starts a little after 6 PM
eastern time. This won't happen again for 105 years. Be sure to have
eye protection such as welder's goggles.


Didn't this just happen a few years ago? And the next one isn't for 105
years? That's a pretty irregular schedule. One thing I've always noticed,
though, is that when there's an unusual celestial event, people will say,
"this won't happen for anotherbig number of years!" and then I read
about it coming up again a few years later.

You might be right, of course. And I'm not really challenging your
statement. It just always seems, to me, like these things happen a lot
more often than we're told they're going to happen.


Celestial events are the most regular things we know about. It will
teach you humility to realize that the universe rolls on, whether you
know or care about it or not. The universe certainly doesn't care about
you.

Transits of Venus occur in pairs eight years apart, but each pair of
transits are separated by more than a century. Only eight of them have
been seen by human eyes in all of recorded history. I feel fortunate
that circumstances permitted me to see this one.

Bud