It's Transit of Venus day. We have clear skies (for now), but if you don't, here are some viewing options

It's not the Sun - but the nearly full moon taken just now,
setting in the morning sky

Captain James Cook sailed a ship around the world to view the transit of Venus from Tahiti, then went on to discover New Zealand and the east coast of Australia.

Several other ships were despatched to other points around the world such as Madagascar so that their compiled measurements could be used to measure the distance of the Sun from us.

It happened again in 2004 - critically before social media! Most of us missed the significance of the event - I sure did.

But this time around - with the incredible help of social media - it is impossible for us to miss that it is happening. And the internet will also provide us with some great ways to watch it happening live regardless of whether you have clear skies and viewing equipment or not.

So here are a bunch of online viewing options:
Slooh - several global feeds.
iTelescope - from Siding Springs in Coonabarabran.
NASA - a bunch of global feeds with one feed from central Australia

Windows 7 users should make sure they have the Windows Snipping Tool able to be run - using that you can take screen grabs of the transit from any of these feeds. The default location of this program is C:\Windows\System32\SnippingTool.exe.

Here's my kit for viewing.

This article includes a description of how to safely view the transit. Surely you don't need yet another warning to not look directly at the Sun? Especially through any magnifying equipment?

Enjoy yourself - it won't happen again while any of us are alive. Clear skies to you!