Transit of Venus: A soon to be rare sight

Auckland (June 6, 2012): People across the world will be able to witness a rare astronomical sight, the transit of Venus, today on Wednesday, June 6.

The planet Venus will transit from in front of the Sun. It will appear as a small dark disk moving across the face of the sun. What makes this transit rare is that it will next occur in December 2117 and December 2125, a 100 odd years from now, with the last transit having occurred in June 2004.

Not only is this transit rare, it will also provide scientists with various research opportunities like measurement of the diameter of Venus, observation of the atmosphere of Venus and even help in the calculation of the distance of the Sun from earth, etc.

The entire transit will be visible from the Pacific Ocean, northwestern North America, Northeastern Asia, Japan, Philippines, eastern Australia, New Zealand and high Arctic locations including Scandinavia and Greenland.

Organizations like NASA and the Keck Observatory Hawaii have set up live webcasts of the transit for people across the world to be able to view this rare sight.

As for New Zealanders, the Stardome Observatory located in One Tree Hill (Auckland) has set up live feed of pictures of the transit, as it happens, on their website.

Researchers from the Auckland University of Technology have set up a telescope at the Stardome Observatory for the public to be able to view the transit. Two more telescopes will also be set up at the Auckland domain.

For a clear view of the transit, people can visit the following websites:

Stardome Observatory: http://www.stardome.org.nz/astronomy/solar-telescope/

NASA: http://venustransit.nasa.gov/webcasts/nasaedge/

Keck Observatory in Hawaii: http://keckobservatory.org/news/venus_transit_live_keck_observatory

Transit of Venus Australia: http://www.transitofvenus.com.au/HOME.html

The transit was visible in New Zealand from 10.15 am this morning and will be visible till 4.43 pm.