Upcoming Event: Transit of Venus Across the Sun - June 5-6 2012
The Transit of Venus across the face of the Sun occurs on June 5th or June 6th, 2012 depending on your location.
This is an extremely rare event, one of the rarest of the predictable astronomical phenomena, and will be the last time you'll have a chance to see this in your lifetimes!
So exactly when and where do you have to be to see it? How do you observe the sun safely during a transit? What's the best way to photograh it? Why is a Transit of Venus so rare? What's the historical significance of a Venus Transit?
All these questions and more are answered in the article I've written:
Just a question about visibility...I will be in Tibet, at the base of Mt Kailash....
Will this be a good place to see the transit? Is this something I should be able to see with the naked eye?
Have yet to read your article fully, sounds like an exciting transit,
thanks,
ness
Just looked closer at article...so no need to answer viewing techniques!
The transit will have already begun when the sun rises at about 5:43 am on 6 June 2012 (Lhasa). It will finish at about 11:40 am with the Sun at about 74 degrees altitude so you'll have plenty of time to see it.
But please ness, DON'T try to see it without a suitable solar filter - get a pair of solar viewing specs from one of the astro retailers before you go! The spot should be visible without scope or binocs (but tiny), provided you get clear weather!!
Great information Mike. I've been planning to turn this into a big event at my daughter's new school. We'll see what they want to get involved with a bit later, but I'm hoping they will build projectors, go into the history etc. Hopefully follow up with an astronomy night the following Friday (good thing it's midwinter, I can keep the momentum up).
My plan is to have my ETX for white light viewing, and my new Lunt with a GStar or similar attached to record and stream the event to the school. It won't be SOHO, but it should be good nonetheless. If I can have the setup uninterrupted I might be able to process images out of it later, but that's a secondary goal.
The trick will be the polar alignment, given that I won't be able to set it up ultra-accurately the night before and expect the scope to still be there the next morning, unless I arrive really early in the morning to do it.
Then maybe Cairns later in the year? We'll see.
I'll leave the 18" dob at home for this event, I think it would set something on fire.
Just had a look at your info page, all the info anyone could want and plenty of time to make plans etc.
Just need to order some clear sky's and we'll be right.
Thanks again
Hi all, I will come to Australia for the transit. Any group observation event on the day of Venus Transit?
Where in Australia were you thinking of coming William? On the east coast the transit starts around 08:20 when Venus will be about 11 degrees above the horizon and finishes at 14:40. Any further west than about Adelaide and the transit starts before Venus rises.
The alternative would be New Zealand where the transit starts with Venus 18 degrees up and finishes very close to sunset.
I am thinking of somewhere around Tennant Creek. Any good spot recommend there?
BTW, since I cannot carry so many batteries to Australia as the flight limited weight for passenger, I would like to know about the price of certain type of battery. Battery I am looking for is D size 1.5v battery and 12V battery cube. If there got any other alternative type of 12V battery, pls recommend also.
Great write up! It helped me confirm timings I had in the local area. I will be in Alice Springs, NT with the Coca-Cola Space Science Center web casting and imaging the event.
The cool thing is we will be one of three teams, one in the USA, one (Us) in The Alice, and the other team will be in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. All web casting live (except after sunset in the US location.)
I am really looking forward to coming over. I can provide a link to the webcast if you would like to list it on your article, or just here in the forums.
The Sydney Observatory has some excellent information that covers the Transit of Venus 2012. Some of it is interactive. I don't think this link has been posted on IIS yet, but if it has it is worth listing again...
I am looking for some help timing the contacts during the Venus transit. We are doing a project and need a large baseline to determine Earth-Dun distance. Timing to the second would be best. Anyone down there able to help with this??
I am looking for some help timing the contacts during the Venus transit. We are doing a project and need a large baseline to determine Earth-Dun distance. Timing to the second would be best. Anyone down there able to help with this??
Aloha from Maui
Rob
Could you list down the minimum requirement on timing measurement?
Could we do it using DSLR + telescope?
How we can calibrate our laptop/camera time to synchronize worldwide?
I am flying in from the USA for the Venus transit. Right now we plan to fly to Darwin and drive to Katherine. Are there any groups in the area than we can join? Any other suggestions for observing sites?
