now there are very few things that will
get me out of bed in the morning before
8 o'clock but the transit of Venus is
one of them because this is the last
time it's going to happen in my lifetime
so I don't have to worry about this
becoming a regular thing on my way to
see the transit of Venus okay so the
transit is probably starting right now
this is probably contact one it's 816
a.m. in Sydney
can you see it absolutely not
she can't see it it's like a black dot
it's Venus beautiful the Sun is now out
and with these silly glasses you can
actually see Venus on the Sun nowadays I
imagine most people don't get excited
about Venus passing in front of the Sun
I mean what's the big deal but in the
old days it was a really important event
because it allowed us to determine the
scale of our solar system and then the
scale of the universe astronomers at the
time knew the relative distances between
the planets because of Kepler's laws
that could calculate the ratios of the
different radii of the orbits of planets
but unfortunately they didn't have any
absolute measure so they couldn't really
say how far anything was from anything
else Edmund Halley the guy who the
comments named after was the one who
suggested that by timing how long it
takes Venus to pass across the face of
the Sun from different points on the
earth would allow us to measure the
distance between the Earth and the Sun
that's using something called parallax
now to illustrate parallax I've actually
kind of set up a solar system in my
kitchen and living room so you can see
the Sun there behind me this is Venus
and over here we have the
oh sorry guys I gotta take this it's
Destin from smarter every day hey Derek
you dare know what's going on hey what's
up dude hey man I went up in Space and
Rocket Center we got the time she said
we could calculate the distance to the
Sun right oh yeah because we're on
opposite sides of the globe we're gonna
compare times and calculate the distance
the Sun my time was 6 hours 28 minutes
and 4 seconds in Sydney okay what time
you get 6 2804 right 6 2804 that's me
okay mine was 6 hours 45 minutes and 36
seconds
no I'm bit longer all right so do I I
just go put it that calculator website
you gave me yeah yeah let's do that okay
all right
call you back sounds good all right
calculate but so the plan is I'm going
to shoot from the earth from the top of
the earth and see what it looks like
when I make a transit of Venus across
the face of the Sun and then I'm going
to change my perspective slightly so I'm
going to go to a lower part of the earth
and I'm going to shoot the same thing
and then I want to overlay those two
images to see how Venus looks as it's
tracking across the Sun from those two
different locations
it should trace out two separate chords
across the face of the Sun and that is
what allows us to estimate the distance
to Venus and the distance to the Sun and
everything else in the solar system
because once we have one absolute
distance we can get all of the distances
so 243 years ago Captain Cook was down
here sent to Tahiti to observe the
transit of Venus
after that he opened his sealed papers
with his secret mission
he was meant to find the Great Southern
land and claim it for Britain which is
what he did he mapped and explore the
coasts of New Zealand and Australia
before returning home this was his first
voyage to the South Pacific so pretty
exciting and then in I guess kind of a
related note eight years ago when this
transit was taking place I was actually
in the air over the Pacific flying from
Vancouver to Sydney to make my life here
so you know me and Cooke we got
something in common I guess you know
I've just been calling back to the
distance what's going on Destin and what
something eh I got it I am look is like
it's like 2:00 in the morning here or
something
anyway it's 93 million miles 93 million
not I don't think that's a unit is it
miles they got rid of that like 100
years ago used to put me on the move
Wow inches that's that's awesome you
want to call out I want in kilometers
how far is it oh it's about a hundred
and forty nine and a half and some
change million kilometers so that's
awesome that's like bang-on how is it
yeah
is that astronomical unit that is one
astronomical unit so good observing sir
well done thank you very much oh there
was eight by the way there was a kid
there today and we did it at the US
Space and Rocket Center under the center
five but there was a kid who that made
his own telescope out of PVC pipe this
that's awesome man I wish I could make a
telescope out of PVC pipe yeah he told
me how to do it he ground the glass and
everything is pretty is parabolic Wow
I want to check that out so I'm gonna
put an annotation over to that video of
Destin so so click on the iPhone here if
you want to go see Destin's video where
you can make your own telescope out of
PVC yeah yeah why let me go click on it
alright you better get to bed don't go
crazy I yeah I do need some sleep I'll
let you go alright
you catch you later have a good night