# Transit of Venus tomorrow - Not again for 115 years.



## VanVinci (Dec 11, 2011)

Transit of Venus, 2012 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia










A little visual aid










The orientation is normalized for a setting sun @ 40 degrees North Latitude (Philly, Denver, 100 miles north of SF)

If you wanna feel like fly shit on the windshield of the Universe, Just remember Venus is about double its actual diameter if to scale with the sun.
...and The Earth and Venus are almost exactly the same diameter.


EDIT: D'oh! There shouldn't be an "AM" in the UT time for sunrise over Europe on D-Day


Seeing the transit with the naked eye is gonna require a filter of some sort. Maybe a pair of dark shades held before another pair.

Thing is, with summer humidity and cumulus or cumulonimbus clouds popping up you may well need to vary the amount of filtering.

If you happen to have an old pair of shades with Polaroid lenses that you can sacrifice then you can make yourself a variable filter.

If you don't know if the shades are Polaroid then you can check by turning a lens before a LCD calculator or watch. (Black Alphanumerics in front of a light background) If they are Polaroid then the LCD screen will lighten and darken. 

If the lenses are plastic, then just pop out the lens of your weakest eye and wear the other. Else you'll have to break the shades and hold both lenses.

Look at the sun with the lenses turned 90 degrees to each other and the view black. Then slowly turn til the sun disk just is crisp.

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If you have a cheap telescope then you can use the projection method









This is great for groups and young kids where visual safety is important.

Also, once you have focused your projected image, you should also see sunspots.

Navigate the sun into view by looking at the surface of the eyepiece from a side angle. Once the sun is in view, you'll clearly see its bright disk on the surface of the small lens.

Use you lowest power eyepiece (The one with the greatest Focal length number inch/mm)


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## VanVinci (Dec 11, 2011)

Using the projection method with a simple 2" (60mm) scope, I can make out 7 sunspots

2 big
3 medium
2 small

The two big ones are rival to the size Venus will be and their placement reminds me of Button holes.


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## VanVinci (Dec 11, 2011)

first cloud break for me.

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu286/OrionzRevenge/ss2.jpg


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## whytiger (Jul 17, 2010)

Thanks. I just did it with a pair of binoculars. It was nice to see. Unfortunately, the projection was too small for my little camera to get a decent picture.


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## Sily (Oct 24, 2008)

VanVinci said:


> first cloud break for me.
> 
> http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu286/OrionzRevenge/ss2.jpg


Great pic!!! Today is a historic day. Very COOL!!










I didn't take this pic. I got it from this live ustream show here:


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## Mutatio NOmenis (Jun 22, 2009)

Saw it. Fuckin' A!


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## Bear987 (May 13, 2012)

Too clouded near where I live to see anything. Too bad. Oh well, there were cookies with a single raisin on them... get it? The cookie represented the sun and the raisin Venus.


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## tympanon (May 1, 2011)

I woke up at 5AM for this.
Too clouded and rainy to see anything =/

But unlike @_Bear987_ I got REAL (and free!) cookies and coffeecakes at the local observatory :crazy:


---
EDIT: Nevermind. I thought you reduced the event to a strange shaped cookie, but it seems like you got real cookies as well after all. Ahhh... the thing that really looks like a raisin is my brain after not sleeping for over 22 hours.


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## Bear987 (May 13, 2012)

apple pie said:


> the thing that really looks like a raisin is my brain after not sleeping for over 22 hours.


You'll have that. I have similar experiences when I work the night shift. Brain no function... wait, did that come out right? 'n stuff like that. Still, considering your nickname, I cannot be mad at you. Apple pie is awesome.


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## Doctor von Science (Jun 6, 2011)

I couldn't see it because the sky was filled with clouds and I apparently can't calibrate my death ray to Cumulus. So I set it to Lab Assistant instead.


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## NekoNinja (Apr 18, 2010)

A video for those who weren't able to catch it like me.


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