How to Watch the Last Transit of Venus This Century

[EmperorScorpious]

[QUOTE]Observatories the world over will be watching on Tuesday as Venus crosses the face of the sun for the last time in any of our lifetimes. It will be a banner day for astronomers, providing ample opportunities for measuring Venus' characteristics, and for determining some rules that will help in the hunt for exoplanets. But it's also just an amazing thing to behold, and you can watch it, too — as long as you follow some safety precautions.

First and foremost: Never look at the sun directly. Your retina does not have pain receptors, so you’ll never feel it as the sun’s blazing glare fries your eyes.

Astronomy clubs, universities and planetaria around the country will have special glasses you can wear — and you can go here to find one in your area. If you saved the eclipse glasses you wore for the solar eclipse last month, those will work, too. If all else fails and you just have to see it with your own eyes, go to a hardware store and buy #14 welder’s glass. That’s the only glass dark enough to protect your eyes.

Sky & Telescope magazine has an excellent go-to guide, where you can learn more about how to safely observe the sun. The entire United States will be able to see at least part of it.

If it’s cloudy, plenty of observatories are planning live webcasts through various solar telescopes. NASA will be webcasting from the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The island state will be able to witness the entire transit, while much of the rest of the country will see only part of it before the sun sets.

The Exploratorium in San Francisco will be webcasting from the Mauna Loa Observatory.

Astronomers Without Borders will be webcasting from Mount Wilson Observatory in California.

The University of Barcelona will webcast from Svalbard, Norway, where the transit will be visible at sunrise. (Site is in Spanish.)

NASA’s Sun-Earth Day page and NASA’s Kepler page have several other resources you can check out.

[img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/transitmap.png[/img][/QUOTE]

Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-06/how-watch-last-transit-venus[/url]

[VistaPOWA]

I couldn't find a store that wasn't out of those eclipse sunglasses. I will never be able to see this happen...

[salty peanut]

it's cloudy here so I'm going to check it out on the news

[imptastick2]

If it is not too cloudy I am going to be setting up a telescope and projecting it, I also have some special lenses that allow you to look directly at the sun.

I may be posting some pictures of the projection if all goes well.

[Editline]Too cloudy, oh well[/editline]

Too cloudy, oh well

[Gmod4ever]

Just like with the eclipse some weeks back, I'm here to post the SLOOH webcam.

[url]http://events.slooh.com/[/url]

Looks like it begins in 42 minutes, according to their countdown.

They're going to have 12 to 15 different feeds, compared to the two they had for the eclipse (they had three, but one of them malfunctioned).

[Kingy_ME]

[QUOTE=VistaPOWA;36213942]I couldn't find a store that wasn't out of those eclipse sunglasses. I will never be able to see this happen...[/QUOTE]

If you have a telescope, you can project the sun onto a white surface safely.

It's a shame I can't see it, it's going to be cloudy for sun rise, and I live right on the west coast of Wales, so I'd only see 10 minutes of it if it wasn't cloudy.

[Gmod4ever]

Out of curiosity, are welding helmets sufficient for staring at the sun for this?

My dad suggested it (he's at work right now), since we have an old welding helmet, and it's actually sunny out.

Also, does anyone have a link to a schedule that'll say exactly when it'll happen for a given area? I've seen that it's at 6PM eastern time, which suggests it is 3PM pacific standard (aka my time), but I'm not sure how accurate that is, since different parts of the world may see it at different times (such as, for example, how the eclipse worked).

[Kingy_ME]

[QUOTE=Gmod4ever;36214188]Out of curiosity, are welding helmets sufficient for staring at the sun for this?

My dad suggested it (he's at work right now), since we have an old welding helmet, and it's actually sunny out.

Also, does anyone have a link to a schedule that'll say exactly when it'll happen for a given area? I've seen that it's at 6PM eastern time, which suggests it is 3PM pacific standard (aka my time), but I'm not sure how accurate that is, since different parts of the world may see it at different times (such as, for example, how the eclipse worked).[/QUOTE]

is it factor 14?

[Gmod4ever]

[QUOTE=Kingy_ME;36214240]is it factor 14?[/QUOTE]

How would I find out? :v:

[Ghosevil]

It should be marked; even shade13 is not as sufficient as 14..

[editline]5th June 2012[/editline]

I'm stoked! I looked in the worst places for solar lens/glasses so I'll have to stick it out with the ol' pinhole projector.

[editline]5th June 2012[/editline]

Venus should coming into view :O (from LA's point of view)

[HkSniper]

Who ever is controlling these cameras, I want to sock them straight in the mouth.

"THIS IS SUCH A RARE AND EXCITING EVENT."

*Cameraman points camera at the douchebag talking rather than providing an image of what is going on.*

[Gmod4ever]

[QUOTE=ghosevil;36214376]It should be marked; even shade13 is not as sufficient as 14..

[editline]5th June 2012[/editline]

I'm stoked! I looked in the worst places for solar lens/glasses so I'll have to stick it out with the ol' pinhole projector.

[editline]5th June 2012[/editline]

Venus should coming into view :O (from LA's point of view)[/QUOTE]

I can't find a marking anywhere on the mask about a factor, proof, or shade.

However, I did find it was made in the mid 70s by Jackson. :v:

[Lyokanthrope]

Cloudy as fuck here, god damn it.

[VistaPOWA]

[url]http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html[/url]

It's happening. (SW part of the Sun)

[Gmod4ever]

Wow, looking at how small Venus is against the Sun on the New Mexico feed on SLOOH, there's no way I'd be able to see it with just a welder's mask.

Need a telescope to see it.

[Ghosevil]

When it's at its midpoint you'd likely be able to.. I wouldn't risk it with that ancient mask, though!

[jaykray]

[QUOTE=Gmod4ever;36214051]Just like with the eclipse some weeks back, I'm here to post the SLOOH webcam.

[url]http://events.slooh.com/[/url]

Looks like it begins in 42 minutes, according to their countdown.

They're going to have 12 to 15 different feeds, compared to the two they had for the eclipse (they had three, but one of them malfunctioned).[/QUOTE]

Watch the university of new mexico stream.

What are the other black spots on the sun?

[VistaPOWA]

Sunspots.

[faze]

[IMG]https://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/415776_10150982968591772_1787705630_o.jpg[/IMG]

Taken just a few minutes ago. There are also possibilities of a solar flare.

[zakededodead]

Screw eclipse glasses, get shades and deal with it.

[fruxodaily]

all the streams are blocked at school, fuck sake

[Vassikin]

My teacher had a Sunspotter and a telescope set up at the school. I wasn't able to get a picture through the telescope but I did get a picture of the projection onto the Sunspotter.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/1PFjf.jpg[/img]

[Number-41]

I can see it at 6:45 AM, fuck that :v:

[VistaPOWA]

4:25AM here. Even though it's a once in a lifetime experience, watching the NASA stream for 1 hour was enough for me.

[ihatecompvir]

Really cool :)

I just now saw it. Me and my friends got together and had a little party.

[Gubbygub]

I grabbed my telescope and a piece of welding helmet glass and looked through the telescope with the glass on front, worked perfectly! Was pretty awesome experience, glad I got to see it in my life.

Also, my mom looked through a less dark piece of glass and now she says she can see a pinkish sun circle in her vision and its not going away, is that really bad or will it go away in a bit?

[faze]

[QUOTE=Gubbygub;36215486]I grabbed my telescope and a piece of welding helmet glass and looked through the telescope with the glass on front, worked perfectly! Was pretty awesome experience, glad I got to see it in my life.

[B]Also, my mom looked through a less dark piece of glass and now she says she can see a pinkish sun circle in her vision and its not going away, is that really bad or will it go away in a bit?[/B][/QUOTE]

I looked several times (didn't see it yet) through the reflection of the sun on my cell phone screen. I had that at first but it's gone now.

[Crash15]

ahahah I am watching it atm with my dad's telescope

[DesolateGrun]

[QUOTE=VistaPOWA;36213942]I couldn't find a store that wasn't out of those eclipse sunglasses. I will never be able to see this happen...[/QUOTE]
I used them at my local observatory, won't see anything with them

BUT TELESCOPES ON THE OTHER HAND

[editline]5th June 2012[/editline]

[QUOTE=Gubbygub;36215486]I grabbed my telescope and a piece of welding helmet glass and looked through the telescope with the glass on front, worked perfectly! Was pretty awesome experience, glad I got to see it in my life.

Also, my mom looked through a less dark piece of glass and now she says she can see a pinkish sun circle in her vision and its not going away, is that really bad or will it go away in a bit?[/QUOTE]

You eyepiece and mirror might be fucked broham

[SatansSin]

How is nobody talking about this?

A once in a life time to see it!

A planet that is out in SPACE, is passing by the Sun!

Immense!