Transit of Venus

I am super excited to see the Transit of Venus tomorrow night! I really enjoy observing the sky no matter how pedestrian the activity. Cloud watching and star gazing are two of my favorites, which probably stems from my childhood when my mom and I used to drive the convertible out into the swamps and watch meteor showers together. The habit of watching the night sky, in particular, led me to realize that I was seeing the Northern Lights in Wisconsin one summer back in my college days. I stayed out until about 3 a.m. watching blues, greens, and faint shades of yellow move all around the sky. I was pretty bummed when I was NOT able to see the shuttle being moved to the National Air & Space Museum back in April because I was on a train to Philadelphia when it happened.

So, the Transit of Venus is my opportunity to see something rare and interesting up in the sky this year! I have an eclipse viewer, but I also recently learned that because Venus is so small it is best to watch it with a special telescope that guards against the bright sun and allows you to see Venus more clearly than just a dot over the sun. The National Air and Space Museum is hosting a public viewing with telescopes on the mall, so I'm thinking that I will visit and try to see it through a telescope and perhaps bring a picnic along. On one of my visits home to Louisiana years ago, my friend and I went to the observatory in Baton Rouge together to look at Saturn, and it was pretty amazing to see through the telescope. You could count the rings and it was a crisp, clear view into outer space that I don't often have the opportunity to enjoy. This makes me think that watching the transit with a little telescopic support is a good idea.

And for those of you who are interested in the other universes out there...the Ultra Deep Field Skywalker, which is part of the Hubble Telescope, has amazing clear images of the spiral and elliptical galaxies way out in the farthest reaches known to us in outer space: http://www.aip.de/groups/galaxies/sw/udf/index.php