Venus To Cross Sun’s Path; UCF Hosting Watch Party

Academics, Beyond UCF, Entertainment, News, Weather — By Staff on June 5, 2012 at 11:31 am

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Just after 6 p.m. tonight, Venus is going to cross in front of the sun and the display will be visible from Earth — if you have the right equipment.

UCF’s Robinson Observatory has that equipment, and is inviting the public to check out the phenomenon on top of Garage A on UCF’s Orlando campus.

UCF will provide telescopes and special glasses for people to safely watch the event that won’t happen again for 105 years.

“It should be really exciting,” said Yan Fernandez, an associate professor at UCF who specializes in comets and asteroids and will be at the viewing, according to a UCF news release. “This event in the 18th and 19th Centuries was very important. It was one of the ways scientists in Europe tried to measure the absolute distance from the earth to the Sun. We have better methods now, but it’s still really quite the sight to see, especially since the next one won’t happen for 105 years.”

The event will end at 8:15 p.m., when the sun sets in Florida.

Also, UCF says the National Solar Observatory will be broadcasting the event and will be posting real-time feeds to http://venustransit.nso.edu