Spirituality

lescopes

Morning minyan gazes heavenward to witness Venus converging with the sun.

KERI GUTEN COHEN

Story Development Editor

T

hree local amateur astronomers turned
the rare transit of Venus across the sun
into a truly spiritual experience.
At 4 a.m. June 8, the trio was busy setting
up their various telescopes in the dark on the
edge of the ball field at Avery Elementary
School in Oak Park. They had much to get
ready, including adding special filters to block
most of the sun's harmful rays and video
equipment to record Venus' historic
passage across the sun, which
occurs twice a century.
Dr. Steven Tennenberg
of Oak Park and Russ
Siegel and Ohr
Somayach Rabbi
David Shapero, both
of Southfield, were
anticipating the tran-
sit for a while..And,
like many amateur
astronomers, they were
excited about sharing the
experience with others.
Dr. Tennenberg suggested
adding another layer to the view-
ing — davening at sunrise.
"It is a heightened religious experience to
daven right at sunrise," he said. "It was a
beautiful day. We put on our tallis and tefillin
in the parking lot and started davening 30
minutes before sunrise and said the Shemoneh
Esrei right at sunrise. The orange-yellow sun-
rise couldn't have been more spectacular."
Siegel felt the service was especially mean-
ingful and "more dramatic" because it was
outside and you could see the sun rising, and
because sunrise is the preferred time to daven
the morning service.
When the service ended at 6:10 a.m., the
Orthodox amateur astronomers focused their
attention on Venus. In North America, the
transit was visible between 6-7:30 a.m.
Minyan members stayed to look at the rare
occurrence, then others began showing up.
Many Avery Elementary students came early
with their parents to catch a glimpse of Venus.
The tiny planet, about 1/32th the diameter
of the sun, appeared as a small dark dot travel-
ing slowly across the lower one-third of the
sun. The second transit for this century will
occur in 2012. A transit happens when one of
the inner planets' orbits places it in line
between the sun and Earth. Siegel captured
Venus' movement on video, with the image

6/18
2004

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showing on a color monitor.
"It was slow-moving, but it lent itself to
video," he said. "It was a spectacular transit
— more than any of us expected," he said.
Dr. Tennenberg and Rabbi Shapero are
amateur astronomers whose interest goes
beyond the scientific. Both give lectures
about the connection between astronomy
and Jewish law, Halachah. A common exam-
ple is about the significance of the new moon
to Judaism.
"I've always been interested in astronomy
and the space program, but in the last
three or four years, my interest
has-heightened and that got
me to buy a nice telescope
and learn more about
astronomy," Dr.
Tennenberg said. "The
most fascinating thing is
how the vastness and the
interesting things in the
universe reflect on the
greatness of God."

Above: Amateur astronomers Russ Siegel Rabbi David Shapero and,
with his telescope, Steve Tennenberg.
Left: In Rabbi Shaperds photo, Venus appears as a tiny dot near the
bottom of the sun.
Below: The minyan completes morning prayers in the parking lot.