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

[Bluearrowll]

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.

Often we're told about a particular astronomical event — eclipses and planet line-ups, for example — that happen only rarely. But Venus crossing the face of the Sun on June 5–6, 2012, takes "rare" to a new level. Don't miss the chance to see this, because you'll never have another chance in your lifetime.
June's celestial spectacle, called a transit of Venus, happens only four times every 243 years. However, the spacing between each occurrence is very uneven: it's 121½ years, then 8 years, then 105½ years, then 8 years again. The last transit occurred in June 2004 — and after this June's event there won't be another until December 2117.

Fortunately, unlike the narrow, fleeting path of visibility for a total solar eclipse, the upcoming transit by Venus will last for about 6½ hours and can be seen from more than half of Earth's surface.


For most of North America, the transit of Venus will begin on the afternoon of June 5th and still be in progress at sunset. Those in western Pacific, eastern Asia, and eastern Australia see the whole show from beginning to end on June 6th (local date). Click on the image for a larger, worldwide map.
Michael Zeiler / Eclipse-maps.com
As the map here shows, North Americans are positioned to see at least a portion of it on the afternoon of June 5th. Unfortunately, almost everyone in South America will miss out. On the other side of the globe (click on the map), portions of the transit are observable at or after sunrise on June 6th from Europe, northeast Africa, west and south-central Asia, and western Australia.
The best-positioned skygazers are those in eastern Asia, eastern Australia, Alaska, New Zealand, and all of the Pacific from Hawaii westward. They have ringside seats for watching the entire transit, including the crucial events around both its start and finish.

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:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/tran/TOV2012-Tab02.pdf

UNITED STATES:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/tran/TOV2012-Tab03.pdf

WORLD:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/tran/TOV2012-Tab04.pdf

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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.
http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/getting-...suns-distance/

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.

[00Razor00]

00o0oo0o0o0o0o0

[who_cares973]

that shit cray

[samurai7694]

damn I wanna see o.o

[gabrieljd]

Not visible woo

[Bluearrowll]

If you live in an area where it is not visible, you can try any one of these sites:

http://www.astronomerswithoutborders...e-webcast.html

http://www.exploratorium.edu/venus/

http://sunearthday.gsfc.nasa.gov/webcasts/nasatv/ (There's actually a live cast now)

http://events.slooh.com/

https://gaia.am.ub.es/serviastro/www...ive/index.html

http://cas.appstate.edu/streams

http://www.bareket-astro.com/live-as...june-2012.html (later parts only)

http://www.planethunters.org/transit#webcast

http://www.ccssc.org/transit2012.html


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Any one of these should work. If one of them is to get clouded over, or fail for some reason, there are plenty more of them to look at.

[Arntonach]

This is going to last about 16 minutes over here while I'm at work. I hope it's a slow day since I missed out of the eclipse a while back.

[bmah]

Looks like my whole province will be covered in clouds the whole day tomorrow. Raining and thundering. Damn it.

[yo man im awesome]

It better not rain by me ;__;

[Elite Ninja]

hYpe

[Bluearrowll]

This picture is updated every 15 minutes and is a live update of the transit. A higher resolution version is posted in the astronomy thread. This picture becomes very exciting in about 10.5 hours.

[alloyus]

Yay rain (live videos definitely don't do this justice, might as well see it on YouTube)

[Xx{Midnight}xX]

I think I'm not gonna be able to see this due to cloud cover

I also find my recent geography class paying off, as I kind of understand things here for once.

Should be neat.

[yo man im awesome]

FFFUUUCCCCCCCCKKK Clouds everywhere ;__________;

[Bluearrowll]

The transit will now be starting depending on geographic location. I am leaving now. Best of luck to whoever has the opportunity! Use the webcasts if you are unable to do so.

[Frank Munoz]

Originally Posted by yo man im awesome

FFFUUUCCCCCCCCKKK Clouds everywhere ;__________;

^ fxcking this fffsss

[igotrhythm]

As cloudy as it is for some of us, I think we are all deeply indebted to Terry for making all this hype possible as far as this community is concerned.

THANK YOU :')

[Arntonach]

Too many clouds in the sky over here. I hope the pictures are good though.

[BahamutZER0]

Welp, it's overcast and I can't see anything |:

I feel your pain fellow cloudy folk

[Syhto]

didnt see it ((