Above: NASA images of the transit of Venus in 2004
As many of you will know the planet Venus traverses across the face of the sun for 7 hours during the evening of June 5th and very early morning of June 6th 2012 (in the northern hemisphere). This event will not happen again for another 105 years so it truly is a once in a lifetime event. I’m not optimistic of a view from my location as it will only be visible between 5.00 and 5.54 am at less than 10 degrees elevation on the horizon, so it needs a perfectly cloud free view from an elevated site to have the best opportunity and we normally have 78% cloud in early June ! Nevertheless, i’ll be out there with the solar telescopes if it looks at all favorable 
If anyone is trying to find out whether the transit will be visible from their location in the northern hemisphere I can recommend the following website http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/where-when/local-transit-times/ which has a handy graphical visibility calculator that is very easy to use. Just pop your postcode into the search box or drag the map to your location.
If the timezones and cloud conspire against you then I can recommend the NASA live broadcast page where you can follow the event in real-time http://venustransit.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/ Another good broadcast site which will be using multiple locations across the globe and telescopes viewing the sun in various wavelengths of light is the Columbus State University site here http://www.ccssc.org/transit2012.html
Hope you all get a view of this rare event. Please remember not to look directly at the sun and do take appropriate safety measures before viewing with the correct equipment. Do get in touch if you have some images and i’ll post them up on the blog – good luck !
If anything I reckon the planetary conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter in the west looks even better tonight with Venus close to the Moon. I couldn’t resist another photo, but this time in full darkness. Although I didn’t realise it at the time I managed to catch the Pleiades star cluster right at the top of the image, which really enhances the overall alignment.
Image taken 26/3/12 at 9.48pm Canon 350D, F5, ISO 400, 10 seconds @ 42mm
There are some great views in the west right now (yes now, get out there !) of a close planetary alignment between the Moon, Jupiter to the left and Venus above the Moon. The Moon is in a thin crescent phase too so you get the added benefit of that slightly blue-grey ghostly disk on the dark side of the Moon resulting from the earthshine effect ie. the reflection of sunlight from the Earth’s surface to the Moon. The alignment is particularly good tonight and tomorrow so do have a look. Image taken 25/3/12 8:30pm. Canon 350D, ISO 400, 18mm, 0.6 sec exposure.
At 15.48UT Venus was occulted by the moon low in the south. I missed the start of the occultation while I was at work, but the weather was cloudy at the time so it was not visible. I left work 16.45, looked up and was amazed to see the thin crescent moon and Jupiter clearly on display with Venus hidden by the moons disk. I raced home to try and catch Venus appearing on the western side of the moon at 17.17UT. I was very lucky to catch Venus appearing again right on the edge of the moon, a beautiful sight! The trio of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon were all very close in conjunction and made a superb image. You can see two of Jupiter’s moons top right either side of Jupiter. Canon 350D, Tamron 70-300 zoom, Canon 18-55 zoom. ISO 200, 4 secs.
This was a trial run in advance of the highly anticipated conjunction of the moon, Venus and Jupiter in the early evening sky on Monday 1st December at around 5pm. I wanted to try and capture the planets reflected in the canal water and just about managed it before the canal was plunged into darkness. Jupiter at top and Venus below. Canon 350D, ISO 400, 8 seconds.
