Venus in Sole Vista
Date uploaded: June 6, 2012
Venus in Sole Vista
At 11.09pm on the 5th June 2012 Venus will begin her transit across the sun; by 6am on the morning of the 6th June 2012 she will have made her exit. This is the last transit of our lifetime, the next occurring in 2117.
Venus in Sole Visa - a site-specific audiovisual installation by David Henckel, creates a digital link between the 2012 observation in Hawaii by NASA with the historical location of the 1639 observation by Jeremiah Horrocks. It features a live feed of the transit from Mauna Kea projected towards the altar, and two performances of Julia Usher’s duet for clarinet and saxophone celebrating the 2012 transit. The piece, which lasts 12 minutes, will be performed between 1st and 2nd contact as Venus enters the outer limb of the sun and again between 3rd and 4th contact as Venus makes her exit.
The performance in the church is being streamed live to NASA TV and will be available to the rest of the world through a dedicated website: http://sunearthday.gsfc.nasa.gov/webcasts/muchhoole/
The installation - which brings together the scientific and sacred quests for knowledge - provides time and space for quiet contemplation and to meditate, perhaps, on the nature of our own existence - fleeting and insignificant though it may be.
In 1882 William Harkness director of the US Naval Laboratory wrote: “We are now on the eve of the second transit of a pair, after which there will be no other till the twenty-first century of our era has dawned upon the earth, and the June flowers are blooming in 2004. When the last transit season occurred the intellectual world was awakening from the slumber of ages, and that wondrous scientific activity which has led to our present advanced knowledge was just beginning. What will be the state of science when the next transit season arrives God only knows. Not even our children's children will live to take part in the astronomy of that day.”
In Certain Places hope you can join them for this unique event.
Venus in Sole Visa
8.45pm onwards 5th June 2012 - 6.00am 6th June 2012
Hoole Parish Church
St.Michaels & All Angels
Much Hoole
Preston
PR4 5JQ
Supported by:
Hoole Parish Church, St.Michaels & All Angels
Hoole St.Michael CofE School
The University of Central Lancashire, School of Art Design & Performance
The Jeremiah Horrocks Institute for Astrophysics & Supercomputing
NASA - North American Space Agency
