Transit of Venus - Past and Future Transits

Past and Future Transits

  • For a complete list see NASA's Six Millennium Catalog of Venus Transits: 2000 BCE to 4000 CE

Currently, transits occur only in June or December (see table) and the occurrence of these events slowly drifts becoming later in the year by about two days every 243-year cycle. Transits usually occur in pairs, on nearly the same date eight years apart. This is because the length of eight Earth years is almost the same as 13 years on Venus, so every eight years the planets are in roughly the same relative positions. This approximate conjunction usually results in a pair of transits, but it is not precise enough to produce a triplet, since Venus arrives 22 hours earlier each time. The last transit not to be part of a pair was in 1396. The next will be in 3089; in 2854 (the second of the 2846/2854 pair), although Venus will just miss the Sun as seen from the Earth's equator, a partial transit will be visible from some parts of the southern hemisphere.

Past transits of Venus
Date(s) of
transit		 Time (UTC) Notes Transit path
(HM Nautical
Almanac Office)
Start Mid End
23 November 1396 15:45 19:27 23:09 Last transit not part of a pair.
25–26 May 1518 22:46
25 May		 01:56
26 May		 05:07
26 May
23 May 1526 16:12 19:35 21:48 Last transit before invention of telescope
7 December 1631 03:51 05:19 06:47 Predicted by Kepler
4 December 1639 14:57 18:25 21:54 First transit observed by Horrocks and Crabtree
6 June 1761 02:02 05:19 08:37 Lomonosov, Chappe d'Auteroche and others observe from Russia; Mason and Dixon observe from the Cape of Good Hope.
3–4 June 1769 19:15
3 June		 22:25
June 3		 01:35
4 June		 Cook sent to Tahiti to observe the transit
9 December 1874 01:49 04:07 06:26 Pietro Tacchini leads expedition to Muddapur, India. A French expedition goes to New Zealand's Campbell Island and a British expedition travelled to Hawaii.
6 December 1882 13:57 17:06 20:15 John Philip Sousa composes a march, the "Transit of Venus", in honor of the transit.
8 June 2004 05:13 08:20 11:26 Various media networks globally broadcast live video of the Venus transit.
5–6 June 2012 22:09
5 June		 01:29
6 June		 04:49
6 June		 Visible in its entirety from Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and Eastern Asia, with the beginning of the transit visible from North America and the end visible from Europe
Future transits of Venus
Date(s) of
transit		 Time (UTC) Notes Transit path
(HM Nautical
Almanac Office)
Start Mid End
10–11 December 2117 23:58
10 December		 02:48
11 December		 05:38
11 December		 Visible in entirety in eastern China, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Australia. Partly visible on extreme U.S. West Coast, and in India, most of Africa, and the Middle East.
8 December 2125 13:15 16:01 18:48 Visible in entirety in South America and the eastern U.S. Partly visible in Western U.S., Europe, and Africa.
11 June 2247 08:42 11:33 14:25 Visible in entirety in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Partly visible in East Asia and Indonesia, and in North and South America.
9 June 2255 01:08 04:38 08:08 Visible in entirety in Russia, India, China, and western Australia. Partly visible in Africa, Europe, and the western U.S.
12–13 December 2360 22:32
12 December		 01:44
13 December		 04:56
13 December		 Visible in entirety in Australia and most of Indonesia. Partly visible in Asia, Africa, and the western half of the Americas.
10 December 2368 12:29 14:45 17:01 Visible in entirety in South America, western Africa, and the U.S. East Coast. Partly visible in Europe, the western U.S., and the Middle East.
12 June 2490 11:39 14:17 16:55 Visible in entirety through most of the Americas, western Africa, and Europe. Partly visible in eastern Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
10 June 2498 03:48 07:25 11:02 Visible in entirety through most of Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and eastern Africa. Partly visible in eastern Americas, Indonesia, and Australia.

Over longer periods of time, new series of transits will start and old series will end. Unlike the saros series for lunar eclipses, it is possible for a transit series to restart after a hiatus. The transit series also vary much more in length than the saros series.

Read more about this topic:  Transit Of Venus

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