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Today Venus passes between the earth and the sun. With proper eye protection you can see it with the naked eye, A little black dot crossing the sun. The last event of this kind occurred in 1882 and it won't happen again for another 122 years. It will be over by 13:23 in germany (7:23 EDT).
I am fortunate enought to be working in a physics building that has a raft of telescopes set up on the roof for viewing venus.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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Mike is right, except that the transit in 2012 will be visiable primarily in the southern hemisphere rather then the northern hemisphere.
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We were all set this morning - had binoculars ready to transfer mage onto piece of paper - damn sky clouded over all morning - typical English weather - we get a heat wave and no sun!
Posts: 394 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Yeah, I had cloud cover until about 7:00 AM. Got about 20 minutes of viewing though. I took some pictures through my telescope. I can't wait to see if they came out.
BTW I couldn't see it with my eclipse glasses. Either the dot was too small or too near the limb. It just didn't show up. But I saw it fine in the 'scope.
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Thanks for the link, Mike. The pics are nice. Google was great, too - I love when they do that.
Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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So, I'm curious, has anyone figured out when the next time Venus and Mercury will pass in front of the sun at the same time? I'm at work now, or I'd search myself.
[fake eagerness]And, and then Mars can line up too, and all the other planets, and it can be like the climax of some bad mysticism movie. I actually think MacGyver or some show did it once.[/fake eagerness]
*edit* I decided to look it up anyway. And it turns out it'll never happen. All Mercury transits happen around 8 May or 10 November, and Venus transits will only happen in early December or early June. But the planets should still be able to be colinear in reference to the solar plane.