Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Venus Transit

Wow, two sun blocking events within a month!  This time Venus was between the earth and the sun, officially called the transit of Venus.

This one I didn't even hear about until I saw some guy trying to view it on his house wall as I was passing by on my bike commute home yesterday afternoon, so I apologize for the lack of warning on this one.

Our neighbors (also big science/engineering people), invited us over yesterday (6/5/12) around dinner time, which happened to be the best viewing time (6:30p) to see their contraption to view it.  They actually held binoculars backwards and focused it on a piece of white paper that they had shadowed.


See the small spot in the bottom of the circles?  I think this method to view the transit was really cool and it kind of looks like an owl with "googly eyes".

Since this is a last in a lifetime opportunity, I took J's picture next to it.  Maybe he'll appreciate it one day.



If you missed it, you'd have to wait till 2117 for such an event to happen again.  Maybe there will be some good pictures at the Exploratorium site.  They were streaming live through the whole event from Hawaii.  If all else fails, there's always Google.

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