2012 School Magazine

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MR K TRESCHMAN. HEAD OF CHEMISTRY

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A MillT 01 Van^ 0111^I WH 111 11A^11 IAI^11 MMIi I^I I^'^~A^'I'M~All 111 I^'IEI A^I I^ 111 ^AMI 11\ This happens in a pair, eight years apart iprevious one In 20041 every one hundred years It has been significant historically because: Predictions of these incidents resulted from Kepler's deducing the elliptical orbits of planets In 1609 The 1761 transit was the first gtobalscientific event as astronomers used timings from different parts of the globe to ascertain the sun-Earth distance land as a consequence att the distances within the solar systeml Captain James Cook went to Tahiti in 1769 for measurements of a transit The technique of a decrease in light intensity 15 used toda discover planets around other stars On 6 June. all students were Issued with sun-safety glasses to observe the black dot on the Sun throughout Its six-hour passage Also available was a projection system of the movement land sun spotsl as well as a view on a computer screen of the tetescopic image. which was used to time spe contact points

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