Transit of Venus

[avram]

The early part of Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon describes (with much fictional elaboration) the first mission the pair went on, observing the 1761 transit of Venus from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, the only successful observation of the event from the southern hemisphere. Transits of Venus are rare — they come in pairs, eight years apart, with over a century between pairs. The last pair was in 1874 and 1882; no transit of Venus occurred in the 20th century.

We’re about to get the first of a pair, tonight. People on the east coast of the US will be able to see the end of the transit at 5:25 AM, weather permitting. Europeans will be able to see the whole thing. West-coast Americans miss out. Next transit is in 2012, but it won’t be visible from New York. After that, it’s 2117 and 2125.

The Hayden Planetarium is setting up telescopes and viewing screens in Central Park, and I’m tempted to go, but the forecast is for cloudy weather. And Boston’s expecting rain. Damn.

Update: More about the transit of Venus, including a visibility map, and another map for 2012.

Another update: Actually, it’s on June 8th, not tomorrow. And it looks like the ingress starts a bit after 5 AM GMT. The egress (the part visible from the eastern US) will be after 11 AM GMT, which will be, what, 6 AM here?

Comments

[acrobatty.livejournal.com]

Will it be visible from Kentucky, or are we too far?

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

Is that 5:25 AM EDT, or 5:25 AM GMT, which would be more consistant with what my Dad's been saying.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

I think 11:00 GMT is 7:00 EDT. (6:00 EST, but that's not relevant except in strange places like Indidana.