Natural History Wanderings

Updated 6/4/12

You can watch the transit live at: NASA

On June 5-6  Venus will cross the Sun. The is extremely rare.  It will appear as small black dot slowly moving across the sun.  This is a once in a lifetime event as the next transit of Venus across the sun takes place in 2117.

North Americans will be able to see at least a portion of it on the afternoon of June 5th. Almost all of South America will miss out. The best views will be from eastern Asia,eastern Australia, Alaska, New Zealand, and all the Pacific from Hawaii  to the west. It starts within a few minutes of 22:10 Universal Time (6:10 p.m. EDT) on June 5th and ends within a few minutes of 4:45 UT June 6th.

The transit of Venus across the sun happens only four times every 243 years. However, the spacing between transit varies greatly: it’s 121½ years, then 8 years, then 105½ years, then 8 years again.

Read more at Transit of Venus: June 5–6, 2012 – Observing Highlights – SkyandTelescope.com.