Venus Eclipsing?

[Gord]

This evening I saw that the first bright 'star' at sunset seemed a bit weird looking. I looked through my binoculars and it looked like a crescent moon. I got out my scope and sure enough, it was a crescent and I think it might be the planet Venus. I guess this isnt a big surprise but I cant say Ive ever noticed that before. Apparently when it does this it is brighter which makes sense as it's very easily seen even at just after 8:00 to the west. I got a poor picture Ill share later.

[dpeppar]

Gord, what is happening is called the transit of Venus. June5/6 Venus will travel across the sun for someone observing on the earth. You are seeing Venus sort of backlit! Now of course we cannot safely look at the sun during this without special equipment but there is lots of sites on the web that will have it live.

DaveP

DaveP

[Gord]

Thanks for the info, Dave. It prompted me to look into it further and found it quite interesting.