How To See Venus Traverse the Sun

Tonight is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Tonight, Venus crosses the sun and will not cross it again until 2117.

To view this natural phenomenon, all you need is a pair of binoculars and a piece of white paper.

Shine the sun through the eye piece of the binoculars and hold a piece of paper a few inches from the view finder end of the binoculars so that the sun light shines through as a bright circle onto the paper.  Focus the binoculars until you see Venus.

Some suggest shining through the opposite way so that the sunlight comes out of the eyepiece but we had little luck seeing the dot of Venus this way as the light was too dim for us.

This same method can be used for Solar Eclipses.

While this is not exactly a fast moving or large wonder to behold, it is extremely rare and real unlike movies.

Here is what we saw.  The dot in the bottom of the circle of light is Venus (the speck is on the bottom of this shot instead of the top because I was trying to hold the binoculars, camera and paper all steady by myself so that you could see it as well).

I hope you share this moment with your children and hug each other, knowing that one day it will be our great great grandchildren beholding this natural wonder.

Na razie...