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Home Page Astrophoto Home Page More Astrophotos: 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 1999-2002 Eclipse Gallery Transit Gallery Comet Gallery Meteor Gallery Vanishing Point Observatory Equipment and other Technical Information
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Transits of the Inner PlanetsTransits of the inner planets across the face of the sun are relatively rare compared to solar or lunar eclipses. If the orbits of Mercury, Venus, and Earth were in the same plane, each time the inner planets passed us, we would see a transit of the planet across the sun, with Mercury transits seen more often than Venus transits because it orbits the sun faster.However, because the orbits of the inner planets are tilted relative to ours, we see a transit only when the inner planets are crossing our orbital plane. Transits of Venus are especially rare, with pairs of them happening more than a century apart, so they are worth making a special effort to see.
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