Resources for the Venus Transit

If you’re lucky, you’ve got a front row view of Venus as it transits across the face of the Sun. That means you’re in Europe, Africa or Asia, you’ve got the proper equipment to filter the Sun, and the weather is cooperating. If you’re like me, you lack all three. Don’t worry, though, the Internet is coming to our rescue.

Astronomers and spacecraft are going to be watching the show and broadcasting what they see in real time so anyone with an Internet connection can stay tuned as the transit progresses.

For starters, educate yourself about the transit, including safety tips and the locations of groups viewing it live. There’s great information from ASTRONET, the European Southern Observatory and NASA.

Next, tune into some spacecraft. You can see the view from SOHO, TRACE, and IMAGE. Finally, settle in with a ground-based observatory. Here’s a complete list of more than 100 observatories broadcasting from Astronet.

The show begins at 0513 UTC (aka Greenwich Mean Time). That’s the same as 1:13 am EDT or 10:13 pm PDT (June 7). The whole transit will take about 6 hours to complete.

Let me know how the transit goes for you. Did you make a special trip, or just look from your backyard? Or, like me, do you have to watch it through the Internet?

And send in your pictures, either of Venus, or of you and your friends out in the sunshine, enjoying the show. 🙂

Good luck!

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today