Venus is just now passing between the earth and the sun, and so we stepped outside to take a look. We brought out a pair of binoculars to use to project the image of the sun onto a piece of paper on the ground. We also took a solar viewing film, but it turns out that the binoculars were a great way to see it as a group. These pictures were taken just after Venus crossed over the edge, and the speck you can see at the edge is much clearer if you click through to the large size on flickr. Over there, you may also be able to make out a couple of sunspots that we were also able to see with the binoculars, but not with the viewing film. Remember, don’t look directly at the sun without proper safety equipment! (See our earlier post for more details on viewing techniques.) The transit is still underway, so you still have a chance to get outside and see it!

Update:  Part II, with a slightly different method.

To get a slightly better view, we used a simple telescope mounted to a tripod.

Aside: This is the Galileoscope, a high-quality, very low cost telescope for $50 (or as little $25 in classroom packs).  It’s designed to let you discover everything that Galileo could see with his telescope, including craters on the moon and the moons of Jupiter, albeit with modern optics that dramatically improve image clarity.

Now, the one thing that you really don’t want to do with a telescope is directly look at the sun through it. (It’s bad enough to stare into the sun; it’s much worse to concentrate the light into a tiny spot.  That’s a good way to start fires, not view the Transit!)

What you can do is to project the light from the telescope onto a piece of paper or matte-white plastic. Adjust the focus until the edges are sharp and— poof! —suddenly, you can see the sunspots.

And the image quality isn’t half bad.  This picture was taken right at the “peak” of the Transit, when Venus was as far into the disk of the sun as it went.  Our image on the screen is about two inches (five cm) across, and it’s easy to make out the features.

Most stunning of all is the incredibly rare opportunity to see a planet in the sky not just as a “point of light” but to see it for what it is: another planet just like ours, slowly orbiting around the same sun.

Today, Tuesday June 5, 2012, the planet Venus— the planet in our solar system that is closest to the shape and size of Earth —will leisurely pass squarely between the Earth and sun.

The Transit of Venus, as it is called, is a once (or maybe twice) in a lifetime event. If at all possible, make an effort to see it today, because you won’t have another chance… at least until the year 2117.

While it will not be visible everywhere in the world (see map), it will be visible for all of North America, Asia, Australia, and eastern Europe. (The latter, towards sunrise on June 6.)   The transit begins at 22:09 UTC, peaks at 01:29 UTC, and ends at 04:49 UTC.  Here in the PDT time zone, that’s 3 PM, peaking at 6:30 PM, and finishing below the horizon. (More at the LA Times.)

Now, how to actually view it?

If you were clever, you might have stashed away an eclipse-viewing filter from the recent solar eclipse.  If not, another option— one that is cheap and easy to find at hardware stores —is a set of welding glasses with a #14 filter. (That’s black glass. Sadly, those dark green goggles that you found in the shed are likely not safe for direct solar viewing.)

But, as the Ontario Science Center warns you,

Be careful: there are many materials that may seem to block out the Sun’s rays, but which are not safe to use for solar viewing. DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN THROUGH sunglasses, photographic neutral density filters, polarizing filters, photographic film, dark plastic such as garbage bags, or smoked glass.

The other approach to consider is indirect viewing. You can build a pinhole projector, or a simpler yet version.  You can also use a telescope set of binoculars to focus sunlight onto a surface for indirect viewing. (Using binoculars or a telescope for direct viewing requires a carefully chosen solar filter, to be safe.)

If all else fails— maybe you’re in cloudy Portland —NASA has got you covered. Head right over here for a “live” feed of solar pictures from the SDO spacecraft in orbit around the Earth, and updating every 15 minutes.

Update: A nice summary of the historical background of viewing transits of Venus is here.

[Image source]