Venus to make rare crossing of sun

general astronomy and quackery discussion is hoped for!

I like the abstract thought of the venus crossing.

I love that duck.

God, those Williams sisters and their excuses ever, etc... "I lost because I was crossing the sun, sorry"

Thee automatic duck!

"it's slow and kind of boring" says top PR bloke for planetary stuff.

Some party that'll be...

I won't get to see it :(

It'll be online!

I can see Venus out my window now. It's nowhere near the sun!

I hate that duck.

it's not the 8th yet though.

ducks are great when they're wrapped in pancakes with spring onions and cucumber and plum sauce, or when they prevent you from being hit by projectiles.

from the stepdad:

June is an interesting month. There are two new comets that have never been seen before. The comet, Neat, was at its very best May 15th, but is still visible. The comet, Linear, peaks June 4th. Both can be seen an hour after sunset.

On the 8th, a transit of Venus occurs. Even this old watcher has never seen this because the last one took place on December 6, 1882. Do not look directly at the sun. Need to make one of those viewing contraptions. (A transit is where the planet Venus crosses our view of the sun. A dark dot.... the image of Venus... will be clearly visible against a bright circle...the image of the solar disk.) Again, don't look at this directly as it staring at the sun can do great damage.

Mercury can't be seen in June. It is behind the sun. By the end of the month, Venus will no longer be an "evening star" but a morning star. Look low in the eastern sky at dawn. Don't worry if you miss Venus in June because in July, It will be a brilliant "morning" star. Mars sets in the west-northwest about a half hour after darkness falls. Jupiter replaces Venus as evening "star" in the west at dusk. Saturn can be seen close to the west-northwest horizon as darkness falls. Saturn sets about 2 hours after the sun.

The solstice takes place on June 20th at 8:57 P.M. EDT. Summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere, winter in the Southern. Hey, did I tell you that I saw the Southern Cross when we were in Peru. Neat! (you have to go south of the equator to see that constellation).

-The old sky watcher

I love astronomy so much! I think that not being able to see the sky is one of my least favorite things about cities!

move to a city where you can see the sky

but avoid london pls

I live in a domed city, like in Logan's Run.

I live in a doomed city, it's called New York.

you could see the stars real nicely during the blackout.

That email was from yr stepdad hstencil? He sounds cool! I like astronomy. I wonder if we'll be able to see this down south here. I am cross I missed out on seeing any aurora australis after that sun activity last year - apparently much of southern australia copped the activity but I live in a big city so too much light pollution :( I may never have another chance either.

Ohwell at least I saw Mars at its closest and the leonid shower a few years back.

It's going on now. Watch live at http://www.venus2004.org/

Also http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/vt_observe_2004.htm

And http://www.venusvoordezon.nl

And http://www.xs4all.nl/~carlkop/venus/overgang.html

Argh. I always miss every celestial event ever.

And http://www3.mira.be/vt2004/webcam.html

Oh crikey. First thing I do this morning is start a thread about it, and now I see this. I am a dumb ass.

Wow, the sun looks like a giant egg there. It looked better on the news this morning. It was all orange and firey and sunlike.

i just went outside and I cant see the durn sun from the way my flat faces (I think it's set too much now anyhow). Oh well!

DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN!!!

It was my intention to watch this but that accurs'd Revd Maskelyne has once again made the observatory an intolerable place to be.

someone here at work has brought in some really expensive binoculars with filters on. There was a huge queue of ppl to use them, but it was well worth the wait. Amazing.