a meeting to be held in Paris, November 5-6-7, 2004
The transit of Venus in front of the Sun on June 8, 2004,
provided the opportunity to promote an international project with
an educational purpose: the measurement of the solar system through the observation of
this rare event: the transit of Venus.
ESO (European Southern Observatory), EAAE (European Association for Astronomy in Education),
the observatoire de Paris, the Institut de mécanique céleste (IMCCE) and the Astronomical Institute
of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic were associated to coordinate this European project. On June 8, 2004,
about 2500 observers sent their observations of the transit of Venus and the
Astronomical Unit was determined
with a surprising accuracy. The remake of such a measurement which was so important in the past, was
a big success not only in Europe but also in the World.
The transit of Venus is over but we would like to go further, to analyse this public event
and to draw conclusions for future projects. For that purpose, we will gather in Paris
from November 5 to November 7, the actors of this successful project, the representatives of the National Nodes,
teachers, amateur astronomers, media,... for the meeting "The Venus transit experience".
The program of the meeting is available here. Note that a special program is planned
for the video laureates on Saturday and that the sessions on Sunday are
restricted to the National Nodes representatives.
The communications made during the meeting are available here as powerpoint presentations.
The gallery of photos made during the meeting are available here.
The transit of Venus provided the opportunity to organize an European video contest among
the observers: preparing
a video clip of 8 minutes showing what they did around the transit of Venus.
We will award the prices to the laureates of this contest
(the first price being a travel to Paranal, in the Chilean Andes,
where some of the largest telescopes in the world, managed by ESO are observing the deep sky.
The ten best laureates of the contest will be in Paris.
Posters showing the activities of each National Nodes and of some amateur associations, teachers
and other participants
will be presented at the "Carré des sciences". A0 size posters are recommended (85cm wide
and 120cm in height).
The meeting will take place at the Carré des sciences, 25 rue de la Montagne Sainte Genevieve, Paris 5ème.
Maps to reach the meeting place, the locations of the social events and the hotels are available here.
last update: November 22, 2004 contact: vtloc @ imcce.fr
