Your Last Chance to View Venus Transit? June 5-6
Astronomers and scientists all over the world have set up their telescopes and binoculars to observe the Transit of Venus, which will be taking place on 5-6 June.
This will be the last chance to be a part of this event, as the next transit will not be happening again until December of 2117. The previous transit happened on June 8, 2004.
This transit received significant attention, as it was the first transit after the invention of modern media, and no human alive had seen the event like this before!
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth. Venus will appear as a dark black disc moving across the face of the Sun.
This year's Venus Transit will begin at 5th June at 22:09 UTC and finish by 04:49 UTC on 6th June. The Pacific Ocean region, Japan, Northeast Asia, Philippines, East Australia and North America will view the entire transit. South America or Western Africa will miss this rare event, as the transit will not be visible from these areas.
German astronomer Johannes Kepler was the first to present the theory of Venus transiting the Sun, predicting that a Venus transit would occur on December 7, 1631. Kepler, however, was unable to view the transit, as the Sun set in Europe. English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks and his friend William Crabtree were the first ones to actually observe a Venus Transit, which took place on 1639. Jeremiah used the calculations from the transit to calculate the distance between Earth and the Sun, measurements far more accurate than other contemporary readings.
This year's transit can be viewed with the help of telescopes, pinhole viewers and astronomical solar filters.
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