Venus Transit events in Singapore - 6 Jun 2012 (Wed morning)

[Gary]

Transit of Venus 2012
http://www.transitofvenus.org/

There will be at least 3 major open-to-public events for this great celestial show in Singapore.

(1) Galaxy Community Club --> Organised by Galaxy Astronomy Club.
- http://home.galaxyastro.sg/
- https://twitter.com/GalaxyAstronomy
- http://www.facebook.com/groups/50543565959/

(2) National University of Singapore --> Organised by NUS Faculty of Science. (Overnight stargazing session the night before Venus Transit)
- http://www.science.nus.edu.sg/outreach/ ... t2012.html

(3) Singapore Science Centre --> Organised by SSC and TASOS.
- http://www.science.edu.sg/events/Pages/Stargazing.aspx
- http://scobbers.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SCOB-Scie ... 3389296588
- http://www.tasos.org.sg

[neoterryjoe]

I wonder will NUS be opening their observatory for the public...will be great if they do!

[starfinder]

Here are the times for the Transit of Venus for observers in Singapore. The times were obtained from http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/where-when/ ... sit-times/
(Thanks to Gary for the info about this webpage.)

Ingress exterior 6 June 2012, 06:13:23am (NOT VISIBLE in Singapore - before sunrise)
Ingress interior 6 June 2012, 06:31:17am (NOT VISIBLE in Singapore - before sunrise)
(Sunrise in Singapore at 6:58am)
Transit center 6 June 2012, 09:31:13am (Singapore time)
Egress interior 6 June 2012, 12:31:36pm (Singapore time) - Contact III
Egress exterior 6 June 2012, 12:49:03pm (Singapore time) - Contact IV

The website will calculate the precise times for your exact location. I used Fullerton Square (near Raffles Place) as that was the site of the mile marker previously. Latitude 1°.28521 N (1°17′06″.7 N) Longitude 103°.85331 E (103°51′11″.9 E)

It seems that the transit times will differ depending on your location, so that for example, the times will differ by about 30 seconds in Penang.

Regarding the visibility of the transit events from Singapore, in summary, we will not be able to see Venus enter into the Sun's disc (ingress) from Singapore as that event would have taken place before sunrise. So at sunrise, we'll see Venus apparently already in the Sun's disc.

However, we'll get to see Venus exit (egress) the Sun's disc at about 12:31pm onwards. That would be neat, because during the previous transit on 8 June 2004, observers in Singapore only got to see the ingress (Venus entering into the Sun's disc) at about 1:30pm that day, but we did not get to see the egress then as that took place after sunset in Singapore. So combining both 2004's and 2012's transits, we can get to see both events (weather permitting). I saw and imaged the ingress back in 2004, so hopefully would be able to do likewise for the egress this year!

[rcj]

of particular interest during the Transit of Venus in our location here, as Gavin has mentioned, is to observe egress. It would be fascinating to note the phenomenons of the elusive aureole of Venus's illuminated atmosphere just off the sun's limb when the planet "exits", as well as observing when the black-drop effect occurs as the planet gets close to the sun's limb again. This is caused by the blurring due to the Earth's atmosphere and telescopic diffraction, combined with the Sun's strong limb darkening at its extreme edge (resulting in a slight teardrop shape). Hope the weather is clear that morning till mid afternoon!

[Gary]

Edited the title of this thread to reflect more accurately what this thread is about and perhaps increase search engine visibility when the public starts searching for it.

Added more related links for the big 3 events.

[Airconvent]

Working day...sigh...hope can at least take half day leave.. Maybe bring a pinhole camera box to work!

[Gary]

Venus Transit reported in Channel 5 and 8 news just now. No mention of local events and local timings yet. But very good sign 2 days in advance.

[Mariner]

Specially took a whole day's leave for this. Was furiously doing up a DIY filter for the scope and making a huge mess with the Elmer's glue....

Remind me to post up pics.

[Gary]

Correction: Channel 5 news just now did mentioned "You (i.e. in Singapore) will be able to see it on Wednesday". Thanks to Dave for the video phone recording.

Channel 8 Chinese news did imply Singapore will be able to see it on Wednesday but a little ambiguous with the choice of words. The newcaster mentioned "people (人们) will be able to see it on Wednesday..." without specifically mentioned Singapore/Singaporeans. Since this is a local news channel, the Singapore implication is there. But the immediate following sentences are regarding a late tuesday night timing may create slight confusion who this "people" are implied and whether the event is happening on tuesday or wednesday. They have also mentioned wrongly the next one occurs in 117 years (should be 105 years or 105.5 if you want to be more precise). Most probably got confused with the year itself which is 2117.

But overall very good news (pun intended ), hopefully they are doing more follow up reporting in the next 2 days with more local coverage.

[gchew]

I'm thinking of observing the transit from East Coast Park. Is anyone also heading there that morning?