Where to Be Where to Be (and When)
Where to Be (and When)
Whether and when you can see the 2012 transit of Venus depends on your location. Key highlights include the four "contacts" near the beginning and end of the transit when Venus appears to touch the edge of the sun. Most of North America sees the beginning of the transit in the afternoon and evening (find a clear western horizon!) on June 5, whereas much of Eurasia sees the end of the transit in the morning (find a clear eastern horizon!) on June 6.
Click to access and enlarge PDF version of map showing visibility of 2012 transit of Venus. Courtesy of Fred Espenak (NASA GSFC), who provides additional transit of Venus data from NASA.
To see an animation of how the sun appears at Region X, near Iceland, see http://youtu.be/3b7a_zXMnnU.
Time is of the Essence
The diagram (click for enlarged PDF version) shows the path of Venus across the sun and the contact times from an earth-centered perspective. However, from different locations on earth, the exact contact times vary by minutes or seconds. That slight difference in times is the essence of a transit's value, for it allowed astronomers to calculate the size of the solar system. The entire event takes about 6 hours 40 minutes. The times in the diagram are in Universal Time, or essentially Greenwich Time. For simplicity, visit http://www.transitofvenus.nl/details.html, or select a nearby city from one of the Links: Where to Be.
So, is the transit of Venus visible June 5 or June 6?
It depends on your time zone. Generally, for the Americas where it is visible (blue colors on map below) the 2012 transit occurs the evening of Tuesday, June 5, 2012. For Eurasia and Africa where it is visible (sage colors on map), the latter part of the transit is seen the morning of June 6, 2012. Map courtesy of Steven van Roode.
