Transit of Venus

Almost finished here....

My pinhole projector wasn't particularly effective. The image of the sun was too small for me to be able to spot an even tinier Venus making its way over (the above image is from here).

At least the webcasts on the internet didn't let me down. I watched the last part of it on a web camera based in the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (which had a bit of commentary as well). And I have just learned from the very well informed commentator there that even though there won't be another Transit of Venus in my lifetime, there will be Transits of Mercury across the sun in 2016 and 2019. Cool. If I'm still blogging then, I'll make sure you all know exactly when they're on...

Coming this week to skies near you....

As well as the solar system diorama deadline, there's another amazing astronomical event happening.

The transit of Venus across the sun is happening on Wednesday. It last happened in June 2004, but after this one, it won't happen again until 2117. So not many of us will still be here by the time the next one rolls around.

You can read more information about it here (also where I found the above image of the June 2004 transit).

Don't look directly at the sun though. It's very dangerous. I'm off now to discover alternative viewing options. The above website seems to have sold out of funky eclipse-viewing glasses so perhaps a pinhole projector may be the way to go.

In other astronomy news, the diorama is finished, other than waiting for the paint to dry. Photos later in the week. It looks pretty good. Chris and the kids have had a big weekend working on it.