VENUS PASSES MERCURY, APPROACHES THE SUN - June 5th

Venus is approaching the sun in advance of the June 5th Transit of Venus. From here on Earth, the second planet has become difficult to see wrapped in bright sunlight. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, however, has no such trouble. SOHO's onboard coronagrah blocks the glare to reveal planets otherwise invisible: A 24-hour movie shows that Mercury is exiting stage left as Venus plunges deeper into sunlight. Updated images may be found here.

Amateur astronomers who manage to locate Venus in broad daylight will find that the planet has turned into a delightfully slender crescent. This is happening because Venus is turning its nightside to Earth, with only a sliver of reflected sunlight still shining over the planet's limb.

The crescent could soon become a ring. When Venus is less than few degrees away from the sun, the horns of the crescent sometimes reach around and touch, producing a complete annulus. The effect is caused by particles in upper layers of Venus's atmosphere which scatter sunlight around the circumference of the planet. The ring is very difficult to observe, and often only black-belt astrophotographers are able to record the phenomenon.

Keep an eye on SpaceWeather's realtime photo gallery to see how Venus shape-shifts in the days ahead:vhttp://spaceweather.com/gallery/

This coming week, at sunrise or sunset depending upon where you live, many in the Northern Hemisphere will be privy to a rare Venus transit. Compared to the last transit in 2004, the path across the Sun is expected to be higher.

Astronomers Seize Last Chance in Llifetime to see Alignment of Earth, Venus and the Sun

May 26, 2012
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/26/astronomers-seize-last-chance-in-lifetime-to-see-alignment-of-earth-venus-and-the-sun/

An alignment of Earth, Venus and the Sun that will not be seen for another 105 years. In a transit, Venus passes between Earth and the Sun, appearing through the telescope as a tiny black spot that, for some six and a half hours, crawls in a line over the fiery face of the Sun. On the evening of June 5, North America, Central America and the northern part of South America will get to see the start of the transit.

For those without their own cameras capable of reducing the Sun's glare (to protect the camera and your eyes), numerous webcams will be available!
CocaCola and NASA cam: http://www.ccssc.org/transit2012.html
Australia 2012 cam: http://www.transitofvenus.com.au/HOME.html
Sky and Telescope has several cams embedded on one page, so you can take your pick! http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/Where-to-See-th...
Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter in the US west (Mountain Time) will broadcast video of the transit live starting at 2pm MST (one hour before the transit starts): http://skycenter.arizona.edu/

Astronomers Without Borders will broadcast a live webcast, hosted by president Mike Simmons: http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/projects/transit-of-venus/...

The Exploratorium will show a live feed of the transit, with commentary every 30 minutes: http://www.exploratorium.edu/venus

NASA TV will host a NASA Edge program covering the transit live from Mauna Kea, Hawaii: http://venustransit.nasa.gov/webcasts/nasatv

The SLOOH Space Camera will broadcast the transit of Venus live from locations around the world, starting at 6p.m. (EDT): http://events.slooh.com/

Researchers from University of Barcelona's Department of Astronomy and Meteorology will broadcast the transit live from the Arctic Svalbard archipelago, the northernmost part of Norway: https://gaia.am.ub.es/serviastro/www/html/venus2012/live/index.html

The Kwasan Observatory will air the transit live from Japan: (URL not provided but streaming from Sky and Telegraph will occur)

The Appalachian State University will stream a live feed from one of its 11-inch Celestron telescopes: http://cas.appstate.edu/streams

The Bareket Observatory will broadcast the latter part of the transit live from Israel: http://www.bareket-astro.com/live-astronomical-web-cast/live-free-v...

The Sky Watchers Association of North Bengal (SWAN) brings you a live feed of the hydrogen-alpha sun: " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">www.skywatchewrsindia.com">http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/www.skywatchewrsindia.com

The Planet Hunters (part of the Zooniverse citizen science project) will be broadcasting a live feed from their website: http://www.planethunters.org/transit#webcast

Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center will be broadcasting the transit in many different wavelengths using hydrogen-alpha, calcium-K-line, and white-light solar filters: http://www.ccssc.org/transit2012.html

TRANSIT OF VENUS: No one reading this will still be alive in Dec. 2117, the next time Venus crosses the sun. That makes today special. On June 5th at 3:09 pm PDT, the second planet begins its historic 7-hour transit of the solar disk. Observers on parts of all seven continents (map) will witness something like this: The timing favors observers in the mid-Pacific where the sun is high overhead during the crossing. In the USA, the transit will be at its best around sunset. Creative photographers will have a field day imaging the swollen red sun "punctured" by the circular disk of Venus.