India gears up to watch 'once in a lifetime' Venus transit

Sky gazers across India are all set to witness a rare celestial event, when the planet Venus moves across the face of the sun appearing as a small dark disc tomorrow.The phenomena is known as the transit of Venus, and the planet appears as a black spot travelling from one limb of the solar disc to the other. This happens because the planet Venus comes between the Earth and the Sun and thus appears as a small black dot on the sun to sky-gazers on Earth.Venus will take about six hours to complete its transit, in an event that will not happen again until 2117.[caption id="attachment_333152" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="The transit will take around six hours to complete: AP"][/caption]Transits occur in pairs separated by eight years, with the gap between pairs of transits alternating between 105.5 and 121.5 years - the last transit was in 2004."The occurrence will be visible from anywhere in India. The greatest transit, when the black dot of venus can be observed at the innermost point of the solar disc, will occur around 7:02 a.m. It will be visible in northern India between sunrise and 10:20 a.m.," said C.B. Devgun from SPACE (Science Popularisation Association of Communicators & Educators).SPACE, an organisation working to spread awareness about astronomy, is taking a scientific expedition having 50 students to Shanghai, China to observe the transit, where it will be visible for the longest period of time.In Delhi, the Nehru Planetarium is organising a public viewing with telescope and solar filters being put out at the Teen Murti lawns in Chanakyapuri for people to come and watch the rare celestial event.Some schools in the capital are also organising public viewing in their premises for students to watch the event."We will be projecting the transit of Venus through projection and there will be experts to explain students and people about the event," said Sumati Anand, Principal of Gyan Mandr Public School in West Delhi.A team of the Amateur Astronomers' Association, Delhi, along with the Vigyan Prasar and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, will webcast the transit from the highest point for such observations - the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle, Ladakh.In Mumbai, KhagolMandal ( a group of amateur Mumbai astronomers) and other science groups have arranged for Telescopes with filters for skygazers to see the event. Locations for viewing the event include Shivaji Park in Dadar, Marathi Vidnyan Parishad, Chunabhatti, Bopardi Hill, Dombivili (E) and Father Agnel High School, Vashi.The webcast can also be viewed live at the NASA Sun-Earth Day website.Scientists warn people not to watch the sun with the naked eye."Do not stare at the sun. Venus covers too little of the solar disk to block the blinding glare. Instead, use some type of projection technique or a solar filter," said Devgun.IANS