OT: Get ready for the transit of Venus

[Louis]

1) Do not look directly at the sun !!!!

2) There are various time calculators online. This will happen tomorrow (Tuesday 5 June 2012)

3) The whole thing happens pretty slowly, In most of North America (all of continental US) it will be in progress at sunset. A few hours before sunset would probably be the best time.

4) The next time this happens you will be DEAD.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/60648000/jpg/_60648750_r3300116-transit_of_venus,_8th_june_2004-spl.jpg

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/60613000/gif/_60613841_transit_viewer_inf464.gif

[Hawker]

Will I be dead from watching this or from some sort of natural causes?

[Louis]

Will I be dead from watching this or from some sort of natural causes?

Depends on what you're doing while watching it...

[JohnHemlock]

Is this event going to unleash tidal waves or global menstruation or anything cool? Last time I got all psyched up for the "slut moon" and my wife went to bed early - it was all hype.

[MattTuck]

Thanks for the reminder Louis... NPR did a really interesting story on a book about when this happened in the 1800's. First international collaboration (edit: scientific) on a significant scale.

hemlock, what is a 'slut moon'?

[onsight512]

We'll be outside with Dad's welding helmet. :-) It was great for the eclipse a few weeks ago.

[Tony T]

Live: Watching for Venus to Cross the Sun
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Explanation: Today Venus moves in front of the Sun. One way to follow this rare event is to actively reload the above live image of the Sun during the right time interval and look for an unusual circular dark dot. The smaller sprawling dark areas are sunspots. The circular dot is the planet Venus. The dark dot will only appear during a few very specific hours, from about 22:10 on 2012 June 5 through 4:50 2012 June 6, Universal Time. This transit is the rarest type of solar eclipse known -- much more rare than an eclipse of the Sun by the Moon or even by the planet Mercury. In fact, the next transit of Venus across the Sun will be in 2117. Anyone with a clear view of the Sun can go outside and carefully view the transit for themselves by projecting sunlight through a hole in a card onto a wall. Because this Venus transit is so unusual and visible from so much of the Earth, it is expected to be one of the more photographed celestial events in history. The live image below on the Sun is being taken by the Earth-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory and can be updated about every 15 minutes.

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/mov/depot/APOD/latest_APOD_HMIC.jpg

[54ny77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH3WvI_S6-k

[MattTuck]

Just want to remind everyone that Louis provided some good info. I don't think it has begun, but I did just punch a hole in a business card, and it seems to work when it is sunny.

this doesn't happen again for like 100 years. so if you have young kids, and they see it this time, thanks to medical advances, maybe they'll live to see the next one.

Thanks Louis for providing some good info!

[Hawker]

How big does the hole in the card have to be?

[Louis]

How big does the hole in the card have to be?

Pin hole - very small.

But sharp edges are probably more important.

[Louis]

Stupid me - I forgot my binoculars at home, so I made a simple pinhole viewer.

Unfortunately the dark dot is just too small to see in the disk of the sun. But you can see the sun clear as day... That method works very well for an eclipse because a much larger percentage of the sun is obscured, but not quite well enough for a transit. I'll try again later.

[MattTuck]

Stupid me - I forgot my binoculars at home, so I made a simple pinhole viewer.

Unfortunately the dark dot is just too small to see in the disk of the sun. But you can see the sun clear as day... That method works very well for an eclipse because a much larger percentage of the sun is obscured, but not quite well enough for a transit. I'll try again later.

yeah, my experience also. Was still fun to attempt!! even if I didn't see it. I'm sure I'll tell my grandchildren about seeing it clear as day!

[Louis]

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/60714000/jpg/_60714991_60714828.jpg

[Bruce K]

It was cloudy and overcast until about 6:00 here but the the sky cleared. We laoded our telecope, stand, and solar filter and drove to a local beach. Unfortunately, we forgot the bolts to mount the scope to the stand.

The solar filter worked great as a viewing glass. Just not as big an image as we ahd hoped for.

Still, very cool.

BK

[rustychisel]

Happening here NOW. It's partial cloud.

It was on the transit of venus
By Christ, we shoulda seen it
the TV 'head was a whore in bed
and the astronomer had no pen**

Friggin' in the Riggin'...

[Tony T]

NASA Video:http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html