Heads up - literally (venus/solar eclipse this Tuesday)
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I post this without really knowing a good or safe way of viewing this (discretion up to you:-)) Starting roughly 5:30 or so (I find a link with the actual times), there will be a rare event...Occuring in 8 year pairs every 113 years, venus moves in front of the sun and apparently, if done correctly, you can see it. I recall a number of years ago during a 'normal' moon/solar eclipse, I used the pinhole in paper/box method and it worked very well (just as advertised)...not sure if this is feesible in this case (???)
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The event is described here by the BBC science team: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18278591
The transit of Venus, where the planet Venus passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, will begin at 2204GMT on Tuesday 5 June and will end at 0455GMT.
The next transition wil occur in 2117 And they do affirm the absolute necessity to use specialist eclipse watching glasses to view - not telescope or binoculars - as Venus only appears as a black dot crossing the face of the sun your eyes will face the full force of the solar light throughout, unlike solar eclipses with the moon. Much safer is the BBC Horizon programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jszy4 Horizon The Transit Of Venus which will broadcast the event live, filming with specialised equipment. That's the only way the UK will experience it anyway as it occurs during our night-time. Martin
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Correction to my earlier post: Weather permitting - and that ain't looking good - the transit will be visible as the sun rises here in the UK from 4.45 am onwards for "and hour or so" Despite it being early and the sun low in the sky the same warnings about looking directly at the sun apply. Use either an eclipse viewer - if you have one rattling round in a drawer somewhere - or use a binocular to project an indirect image onto a sheet of paper. Even a pin- hole in a piece of paper will act to project a small image onto a sheet of paper. More advice here; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17745366 Scroll down past the article for pictures of safe viewing techniques. These scientific institutes are streaming live images on-line: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/Where-to-See-the-Transit-of-Venus-Online-154213475.html Martin
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Weather was poor here in the NE US - saw some really nice images on line though...will go back in a little while and post them here:-)
