Astroblog: Preparing for the Transit of Venus?

Saturday, June 02, 2012

Preparing for the Transit of Venus?

Morning sky on Wednesday June 6 looking north-east as seen from Adelaide at 7:45 am local time in South Australia showing the Sun. The left inset shows the appearance of Venus seen telescopically at this time with Venus just entering the Sun's disk. The right inset shows the appearance of the Sun and Venus near maximum transit. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen)

It's 4 and a bit days until the last Transit of Venus until 2117. This weekend is an ideal time to set up your telescopes and binoculars and do some test runs to make sure everything will run smoothly on the day.

Make sure your digital cameras batteries are well charged (ad if you are using a telescope drive, that its batteries are fresh too). Send some time of the weekend getting a feel for the focus requirements of you camera after you have the scopes or binoculars ste up.

Don't forget to check out my Transit of Venus site with timings, observing hints, public viewings and webcams.

Labels: astrophotography, transit, Venus