Success at today's transit

We had a great turnout this morning in Efrat. Nurit, the science teacher from  the girls school rounded up at least 50 kids to come to school early just to watch the show. We also had lost of local adults from Efrat and several from around the Gush

I setup my handy Galileoscope for projection and had my son Benjy hold a clipboard for the projection screen. Benjy was real trooper, holding that screen steady for almost an hour!

More images here

-AstroTom

Transit of Venus

This Wednesday morning will be a once- (or maybe twice-) in-a-lifetime event.

From 2004-6-8 venus transit

The planet Venus will be passing directly between us and the Sun. This will result in a tiny "eclipse" when Venus appears as a small black dot on the face of the Sun. A similar transit occurred in 2004, (see my pictures) but if you miss this one your next chance won't be till the year 2117.

You can see a great animation of the event at http://www.shadowandsubstance.com (scroll down)

Here in Israel, the Sun will rise at 5:30am with Venus already more than halfway through the transit . Venus will slowly move toward  the edge of the Sun until 7:50, when it will disappear from the face of the Sun..
As with a solar eclipse, you will need special equipment like a solar filter or an enlarged projection, to see the transit.

From 7:00 - 7:45 am Wednesday morning in Efrat, I will  be set up with my telescope near the traffic circle next to the girls school in Zayit. You are all welcomed to come take a look! For other public viewings around the country see the IAA
 
For more details and history of previous transits see  http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2012/transit/

-AstroTom