VT-2004 Website – Central Display

Richard West (ESO)

Brandys nad Labem – Czech Republic

May 8, 2004

Venus Transit Coming! Extremely rare event on June 8, 2004 Visible in Europe, Africa, Asia VT-2004 programme for the wide public Direct involvement of schools Major media event intended Introduction to exoplanet research Historical aspects Determination of Sun-Earth distance First step on astronomical distance scale Perform an observation and participate Webcast and on-line information

Website plays a central role for communication!

Venus Transit - 2004

Visit:

www.vt-2004.org

VT-2004 website

Statistics for four months in early 2004

April 2004

Acquisition of Images

• “Primary Partners” – direct links

• Listed websites with images – download

• 14-inch Celestron at ESO HQ via internal net

• Image Editors

• Comments added

Dissemination of Central Display

• AKAMAI contract

• Several hundred mirror sites all over the world (up to 15,000)

• Starting on June 6 for three days

• Automatic updates

• Every 30 seconds

• [Links to National Node websites]