The timing favors observers in the mid-Pacific where the sun is high overhead during the crossing. In the USA, the transit will be at its best around sunset. Creative photographers will have a field day imaging the swollen red sun "punctured" by the circular disk of Venus.
Stay tuned to Spaceweather.com's realtime gallery for constantly updated images of the transit. Another photo-stream of interest comes from the International Space Station where Don Pettit will be the first man in history to photograph a Venus transit from space. There are also many live webcasts of the transit from locations around the world: #1, #2, #3, #4. (Submit more webcast links here.)
Observing Tip: Do not stare at the sun. Venus covers too little of the solar disk to block the blinding glare. Instead, use some type of projection technique or a solar filter. A #14 welder's glass is a good choice. Many astronomy clubs will have solar telescopes set up to observe the event; contact your local club for details.
Transit of Venus Web Links:
- NASA's Transit of Venus home page
- The Mysterious Arc of Venus -- Science@NASA
- James Cook and the Transit of Venus -- Science@NASA
- Don Pettit and the Transit of Venus -- Science@NASA
- Live images from the ISS --whoa!
The effect is caused by particles in upper layers of Venus's atmosphere which scatter sunlight around the circumference of the planet. The ring is very difficult to observe, and often only black-belt astrophotographers are able to record the phenomenon.
"This picture was taken while Venus was a scant 2ยฐ17' from the sun's center, and it was very difficult to obtain due to the extreme proximity of the solar limb," says Comolli. "Extreme care was due to avoid the sun light entering the telescope. The extension of the crescent to form a nearly complete ring was remarkable on June 4, while nearly invisible on June 2. Another interesting observation is the limb brightening in Venus's southern hemisphere between 50ยฐ to 70ยฐ latitude. For confirmation, I obtained a second image using a W25 filter (red) that shows the presence of the brightening in the same way."
More images: from Tobias Kampschulte of Gennadi, Rhodes, Greece; from Steve Miller of Lake Havasu City, Arizona: from Antonios Pantelidis of Florina, Greece; from Rob of Liverpool, UK; from Elias Chasiotis of Markopoulo, Greece; from Pavol Rapavy of Observatory Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia; from Ernie Mastroianni of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; from Joe Mcbride of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Transit of Venus,& 2.NASA Catalog SEZ Transit OCCURRED11/18/98 WT
This (semi)-grown child of two Aerospace Engineers' Child Asks ALL, EVERYONE AND ANYONE....
1. Re Ongoing Transit of Venus ("TOV"), it's too cloudy here but you can see it online at sundry places. As you've heard, they come in pairs, today's being linked to 2004's. So what is/was the 11/18/1998 TOV???
2. THIS NASA catalog says that a Transit occurred on 11/19/1998 and yet I've been able to find NO OTHER information about it. The link is below the table excerpt.
I read that site, and it seems that if the 11/18/1998 was an unpaired TOV aberration, they would have then noted it as the catalog was published in or around 1999-2000. Any ideas, anyone???
MLW
Transits of Venus
Six Millennium Catalog: 2000 BCE to 0001 BCE
(Astronomical Years: -1999 to 0000)
Transit Contact Times (UT)
------------------------------------- Minimum Sun Sun Transit
Date I II Greatest III IV Sep. RA Dec GST Series
h:m h:m h:m h:m h:m " h ยฐ h
-1998 Nov 18 07:34 07:51 11:20 14:50 15:07 374.0 14.541 -15.31 2.665 2
-1892 May 21 16:18 16:37 19:26 22:15 22:35 617.5 2.721 16.16 14.879 1
-1884 May 19 09:08 09:26 12:30 15:34 15:52 545.4 2.581 15.50 14.733 3
-1763 Nov 20 21:46 - 22:56 - 00:06 966.6 14.831 -16.65 2.961 4
-1755 Nov 18 08:43 09:01 12:18 15:36 15:53 474.8 14.669 -15.91 2.804 2
-1649 May 23 21:54 22:16 00:45 03:13 03:35 696.9 2.872 16.83 15.030 1
-1641 May 20 14:26 14:43 18:02
21:20 21:37 459.9 2.732 16.20 14.884 3
-1520 Nov 20 21:41 22:16 23:44 01:12 01:47 871.8 14.961 -17.21 3.099 4
-1512 Nov 18 09:32 09:51 12:51 15:50 16:10 585.4 14.797 -16.48 2.942 2
-1406 May 23 03:31 03:57 05:57 07:56 08:22 780.4 3.024 17.47 15.181 1
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