Sten Odenwald's diary of the Transit of Venus 2004 at the Astronomy Cafe
Friday, June 11 - Aftermath
So, how did it all go? Did everyone that wanted to see the transit actually get to see it? I will update this page during the next few weeks as more statistics are uncovered. The news story that directly competed with this event was the death of former President Reagan and his internment on Friday June 11.

TV Coverage

At the time of the transit webcast from Greece, the web servers at the Exploratorium were totally swamped and stayed that way throughout the morning. This means that several thousand viewers at a time viewed the webcast and as one viewer logged off another stepped in to take their place. NASA-TV and the Discovery Channel broadcast the webcast we were doing in Greece in real-time, so that literally millions of people would have been able to see the broadcast in its entirety. Our local Channel 5 news televised the transit viewing party at Montgomery Community College which had 500 people there and clear skies for viewing.

Newspaper Coverage

Every major newspaper ran at least one story on this topic, and in many of them my comments and the NASA web cast were mentioned. The people most often cited were Sten Odenwald, Fred Espenak and Jay Pasachoff. The websites most often cited were Fred's informational website about the technical circumstances and times of the transit, the Exploratorium live Webcast, and Chuck Bueters www.transitofvenus.org' resource page. My comment about the popularity of the 1882 transit and people selling telescope time at '10 cents a shot' was quoted in the Associated Press article, but not my Sousa March comments. At the time I was doing the webcast, NBC and CBS along with other news agencies were frantically trying to track me down to get an eyewitness interview from me. CBS News from New York called my wife several times, but all she could do was to give them my apartment phone number in Greece, and that phone had no answering machine. Besides, I was at the Observatory all day and unreachable by phone. Sadly, I could not handle any of these interviews. What a fun, but missed, opportunity to educate the public!!

Because this is my own diary, I will describe only the stats relevant to me and my education efforts. You can find other information by going to the many online newspaper archives for a more complete story. You can also visit Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy page to see his accounts of his experiences with the many interviews he did at NASA/Goddard that day.

  • Baltimore Sun, May 22, 2004 -The Buzz - Rare occurrences in space and time Many people liked my calculation that cicadas and transits again happened on May 23, 797 AD.
  • Netscape News - Associated Press June 1, 2004 - Planet Venus Will Cross Face of Sun by Malcom Ritter. Based on his long interview with me in May, this article got plenty of circulation in the news media and smaller newspapers lacking staff writers.
  • Kensington Gazette June 2, 2004 -Preparing for Venus Transit by Matthew Smith. This was the front page article based on the interview he did with me a few weeks ago. Very extensive and much enjoyed by my neighbors. Oddly, this was the only edition of the newspaper which our neighborhood never received in our regular Thursday morning delivery.
  • Washington Post, June 3 2004 - Book Your Seat for Venus Transit by Blane Friedlander. This was the Metro Section monthly sky article which he interviewed me for a month ago, and it gave all the correct info about where to view the webcast with NASA, and my cute calculation about cicadas and transits.
  • Athens News, June 4-10, 2004 -Venus to Cross Face of Sun on June 8 by Malcom Ritter. The Associated Press article finds its way to my local newspaper in Greece when I was preparing to do the live webcast

Random Web Stuff

The NASA Sun-earth-day website experienced 50 million hits between June 7-9, and this was only a part of the full traffic which also flowed into the main NASA 'portal' site at www.nasa.gov. Of course there were lots of websites active that day. A Google Search on the key word 'Transit of Venus' turns up 474,000 hits. The top four pages are the Danish transit of venus page at http://www.venus-transit.de/ , Fred Espenak's page at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/venus0412.html , Chuck Beuters www.transitofvenus.org page, and the NASA SECEF sunearthday page at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/index_vthome.htm CNN.com did 'Venus puts on a rare show' on their June 8 page (http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/06/08/venus.transit/index.html). Although it didn't mention me or NASA explicitly, it gave our webcast-sunearth day link top billing.

Space.com did an article on June 8 (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/venus_transit_reaction_040608.html) on the transit Spectators Turn Out to See Venus Transit. It was a largely international story in which Jay Pasachoff took center stage from Greece. No mention of NASA doing their live webcast in the same country. Their second article that day gave the address to our webcast at the Exploratorium. Good for them! They also linked to my Sousa March page at the Sunearthday site (http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/vt_edu2004_venus_back_mus.htm). You can read the transcript of my web chat with Earth and Sky Radio at http://www.earthsky.com/shows/chats/chatodenwald.php USATODAY.COM did an article 'Venus Rapid Transit, first observer, mind your eyes' by reporter April Holiday who I have spoken to before. She mentioned me in the live webcast and provided a link to it, and had Fred Espenak describe the viewing circumstances.