Just a quick post on viewing the transit of Venus tomorrow:
Timing
You can find timing related information from http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/venus/city12-1.html and http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/transit12.html. For those of us from Sri Lanka, the transit will be visible from the sunrise it self. The peak of the transit would be around 07:30 AM. The transit will end around 10:21 AM. The latter link actually has a nice image of the path of Venus across the sun.
Viewing
Do not use sunglasses or xray film to look at the sun. Most of the damage that happens to the eye can happen due to the wavelengths which are not visible. If you do have xray film and a camera/webcam with a reasonably good zoom, put the xray film in front of the lens and use the live-view of the camera to view the transit (or you can hook it up to a laptop).
It is also possible to use a pinhole camera to project the image of the sun to a wall. During 2010 annular eclipse, I came across a natural pinhole camera caused by the holes in dry leaves (this phenomenon is apparently well known). NASA also recommends using No:14 welding glasses, however availability of those may be questionable.
NASA has a list of safe viewing methods at http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2012/transit/viewing.php.
Webcast
There is a pretty good webcast planned by NASA and is available at http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/. While giving a live feed of the event, they also plan to talk about the whole background, cultural aspects, science behind the event etc.
Timing
You can find timing related information from http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/venus/city12-1.html and http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/transit12.html. For those of us from Sri Lanka, the transit will be visible from the sunrise it self. The peak of the transit would be around 07:30 AM. The transit will end around 10:21 AM. The latter link actually has a nice image of the path of Venus across the sun.
Viewing
Do not use sunglasses or xray film to look at the sun. Most of the damage that happens to the eye can happen due to the wavelengths which are not visible. If you do have xray film and a camera/webcam with a reasonably good zoom, put the xray film in front of the lens and use the live-view of the camera to view the transit (or you can hook it up to a laptop).
It is also possible to use a pinhole camera to project the image of the sun to a wall. During 2010 annular eclipse, I came across a natural pinhole camera caused by the holes in dry leaves (this phenomenon is apparently well known). NASA also recommends using No:14 welding glasses, however availability of those may be questionable.
NASA has a list of safe viewing methods at http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2012/transit/viewing.php.
Webcast
There is a pretty good webcast planned by NASA and is available at http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/. While giving a live feed of the event, they also plan to talk about the whole background, cultural aspects, science behind the event etc.
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