The weather looks to be a problem for today's celestial event.
- LOCAL CONNECTIONS
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Tuesday, June 5, 2012
An event that won't occur again for another 105 years will take place this evening. Unfortunately, no one told the clouds that they were interrupting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Since the forecast doesn't look promising for viewing the transit of Venus in South Cobb, we wanted to provide a few alternatives. Brian Ventrudo is the publisher of "One-Minute Astronomer," a blog about, well, astronomy. He provided the information below in an email to his subscribers: If you're in the right part of the world, and if you have the right equipment (including a good solar filter), and if the clouds stay away, I hope you get out to view the transit of Venus [today]. It will be the last such transit for 105 years. If you can't see the transit for…
You'll probably be dead the next time this happens, so watch it on Tuesday evening.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Kiri Walton
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Tuesday, June 5, 2012
A little after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, South Cobb residents will have an opportunity to witness one of the rarest predictable celestial events: a transit of Venus. Often referred to as the "Evening Star" or "Morning Star," Venus is the brightest natural object in our sky after the Sun and the Moon. As the second planet from the Sun, it's closer to the Sun than the Earth is. A "transit" of Venus occurs when Venus passes between us and the Sun in such a way that we can see Venus's silhouette backlit by the Sun's brilliant light. It last happened in 2004, but it won't happen again until 2117. Unless you plan to shatter some human longevity records, this is probably your last chance. Were Venus either large enough or close enough to block out the …
