The Transit of Venus, June 5-6, 2012.

I did not make this banner, I found it off the internet and the address points to celestron.

You may or may not have heard already that on June 5th, (6th if you are in the eastern side of the world) the planet Venus is going to cross the Sun in a dramatic 6 and a half hour show. The first thing you need to know is are you in the area where it is going to be displayed to the world? Use the following map courtesy of SkyandTelescope to see:


In other words, unless you live in South America, West Africa, Spain or Portugal, or Antarctica, you have a chance to see this event, weather permitting.

Their article here puts it best: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/obser...134332798.html

However, if you do not wish to click the link, you can also read some of the article in this spoiler.


People living in the Northern Hemisphere will see a longer show due to the parallax of Venus. The reason for this is illustrated in the following image, where one watching in north america sees Venus cross a lower portion of the sun, than someone in austrailia who sees Venus crossing a higher portion of the sun.

So what time does it all happen?

It depends on your location. Here are three tables of major cities where the times of the transit will begin and end.

Some definitions:
External Ingress: Venus touches the edge of the sun. The Transit starts here.
Internal Ingress: Venus completely enters the sun, and appears as a silhouette.
Greatest Transit: The deepest point of the transit.
Internal Egress: The time of the exact moment Venus begins to depart the sun's image.
External Egress: The time of the exact moment Venus leaves the sun's image. The Transit ends here.

CANADA:


UNITED STATES:


WORLD:


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Now this is likely the last transit of Venus you are going to see in your lifetime, unless you plan to live for another 105 years after this year. Unless you get clouded over, I recommend making an attempt to see this twice in a lifetime (for us) event. Some generations live their full lives without ever seeing what it looks like. To the untrained person, they won't realise what's happening as Venus covers just 3% of the surface of the Sun. Unless they're looking straight at the sun, it will appear to be a normal day.


Scientist's can use the transit to calculate precisely the circumference of the Sun, and other characteristics of the sun. The sun is crucial to our understanding of measuring more distant objects, and -everyone- is being invited to participate in a measurement where you can calculate the exact moment Venus exteranlly ingressed and egressed the sun. Read more about this here.


If you can picture my eclipse, but with Venus, you will forecast what you are going to see in 4 days.

I am prepared for the Transit, assuming I have good weather. Are you?

If you do not have good weather, or you live in an area where there is no transit:

You can watch the transit online from -anyone- of the online broadcasts found in this link. Don't let poor weather hamper your experience!
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/obser...154213475.html

More updates will be posted in my astronomy thread, as well as this thread.