Venus Moving in for a Transit

Venus is moving in! The LASCO C3 coronograph on board the SOHO spacecraft has been watching the approach of Venus for its last solar transit until 2117. With coronagraphs, the Sun is blocked by an occulting disk, seen here in blue, so that SOHO can observe the much fainter features in the Sun’s corona. The actual size of the Sun is represented by the white disk.

The transit of Venus will be tomorrow, June 5, starting at about 6pm Eastern Daylight Time, or about 10pm UTC. Universe Today will be coordinating 8 hours of rockin’ live coverage, starting at 20:00 UTC (2:00 p.m. PDT, 5 pm EDT) on Tuesday. During the webcast, go to the coordinating page on Universe Today, UniverseToday.com/transit, or you can also view it on the Virtual Star party Google+ page, or on Universe Today’s YouTube live feed.

One Reply to “Venus Moving in for a Transit”

  1. Definite buzz on Big Island, Hawaii. Spike in tourists.

    Very excited to see the transit from Hawaii. We were shut out in 2004. This one starts at 12:10 near the zenith and ends 6:44p near the western horizon 15 minutes before sunset. 4″ Refractor and solar filter are ready to go!

    Any suggestions about seeing Exterior ingress at 12:10? If the Sun is at the zenith and I’m facing west, seem ingress would occur on the left side of the Sun, east facing part of the solar sphere. Is that correct?

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