Last Chance: Venus in Transit

In just a couple months, Venus is going to pass in front of the Sun - or more correctly, Venus will transit between the Earth and the Sun.  This is the last time it will happen during your life.  It won't be visible from everywhere on the planet, but will be visible in California, in the afternoon and early evening on May 6, 2012.  It gets better: May 6 is a Sunday (coincidence???), so I won't have to explain to my boss that I'm leaving work early in order to go stare at the Sun.

You can't stare at the Sun, of course, but you can easily make a pinhole projector using stuff you already have around the house.  That's what Nathan & I will be doing on May 5th.  Even better, we're going to make one big enough that the whole family can watch at once.  And yes, it will be large enough for us to see Venus with the naked eye; no magnification required.

People have been watching the Venus transit for centuries.  But this being the 21st century, there's an app for that.  And a blog.  With instructions from the Exploratorium.  Nathan just started learning about planets, with some help from a wonderful piece of open source software called Open Universe.  (Of course, the Venus transit website uses open source software too.)

It gets better: this phenomenal piece of Sun-gazing happens on the day that our ancestors referred to as Sun Day.  Exactly 24 hours later, we will be blessed with a full moon, on Moon Day (Monday).  Mind = blown.