Astronomy department to offer telescopes to view Venus transit event

May 30, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. —The rare occurrence of the planet Venus passing directly between the Earth and the sun will take place Tuesday evening.

It will be visible from Gainesville between 6:03 and 8:26 p.m.

The University of Florida department of astronomy will provide telescopes with a safe solar filter to observe the event because the naked eye cannot safely view the sun. The telescopes will be set up on Flavet Field and will be free and open to the public.

Venus will appear through the telescopes as a dark round spot against the disk of the sun.

The event, known as a transit, occurs in pairs; each pair is separated by more than a century. The two events of a pair are separated by about eight years. The first contemporary event of this pair occurred on June 8, 2004. The last transit occurred in 1882, and the next one will take place in 2117, 105 years from now.

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