Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Transit of Venus Today

Will you be observing the transit of the planet Venus across the sun today? If you are in certain parts of the world that will be able to observe such a thing, and you will be participating, I would love to hear from you on what you saw or did.

It will take a little less than seven hours for Venus to cross the disk of the Sun, with the entire transit being visible at latitudes above the Arctic Circle as well as in much of the Pacific Ocean, Australia, and eastern and central Asia. People in many other parts of the world, meanwhile, will have the chance to observe at least some of the event. In Western Europe, the final hour or so of the transit will be visible after sunrise on 6 June, whereas observers in eastern North America will be treated to the first two or three hours of the celestial phenomenon before the Sun sets this evening.
Zz.

Edit 5/6/2011: There is a collection of websites on the transit of Venus, ranging from the historical perspective to why it is important astronomically. Check it out.

1 comment:

Doug Applegate said...

I set up an 8" scope, and passed around some solar filters, at SLAC today. Maybe 150 people came by to take a look. I stayed until 7pm so that some scientists could bring their kids back after soccer practice.

Super fun, but it was exhausting handling so many people.