Transit of Venus!

Tomorrow, 5 June 2012, we will have a rather rare and magnificent event: a Transit of the planet Venus.  This means that Venus will pass directly in front of the sun in its orbit, so it will be possible, with proper equipment, to see the dark outline of Venus on the face of the Sun.


A view of the 2004 Transit of Venus.

The transit will start at 18:04 Easter Daylight Time the evening of Tuesday, 5 June in the Washington, DC area.
 
NASA will have a live webcast to actually watch the event, which you can find here:
http://sunearthday.gsfc.nasa.gov/webcasts/nasaedge/

This site has some great information on some very simple techniques for viewing the sun, and this event, safely:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/how.html#CARD

Several website have some excellent information on watching the event, if you are interested:

Space.com: http://www.space.com/14568-venus-transits-sun-2012-skywatching.html

Sky and Telescope: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/Your-Viewing-Guide-to-the-Transit-of-Venus-155396605.html

For those interested, Sky and Telescope also has a series of articles on the history of the observation of transits:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/Transits-of-Venus-in-History-1631-1716-156303125.html

UPDATE: Here is a splendid follow-up video showing the Transit of 5 June 2012:

Just so you know, transits seem to come in pairs.  We had our last in 2004, but the next pair of transits of Venus will be in 2117AD and 2125AD...


Live well!