Next Transit of Venus (5/6 June 2012) - not that long away

OK maybe Norway is not so good
(from a Norwegian astronomy site;)

Because the transit occurs at local night in Europe, only the last part of it will be visible, except from the northernmost parts of Scandinavia. In southern Norway the sun will rise around 4 am this morning. Thereafter the altitude of the sun will be low for several hours. A clear horizon is therefore needed to observe the phenomenon.

In northern Norway the Sun there will be midnight sun and the whole transit will be observable. If the weather is nice, this might be a very beautiful transit.

However, the low altitude of the sun makes us much more vulnerable for clouds than we will be in 2004. The solar radiation must pass through much more air on its way to us, and also more clouds if they are present.

In northern Norway the cloud conditions are generally less favourable than they are in southern Norway. The chances to actually see a transit will be better in 2004 than in 2012. If the weather conditions should be absolutely hopeless in 2004, there will come another chance 8 years later. Thereafter we must wait until December 11, 2117 and December 8, 2125 for the next tansits of Venus here on Earth.

Due to the weather conditions and because the Sun is above the horizon for only a short time in December in Norway, the transit on June 8, 2004 will be the last to experience under ideal conditions for almost 250 years in Norway!!

If I was going to the bother of going up there or to Svalbard then it would
have to be winter as I'd want to see the Aurora / NLC's also.
Oz looks good though.
It being June then would they not have longer nights?

This site is v. good:

www.transitofvenus.nl/details.html

Looks like Hawaii might be worth a visit for this...

Michael.

Gosh, this is going to be a though one, !
So it's between the frozen ice wastes of Slavbard, the sunny shores of Hawaii, and looking at the map maybe Alaska, Japan and East Asia in general.
It is not going to be cheap no matter how you do it, although I have to say I'm leaning towards Slavbard at the moment, I can live with the cold so long as its clear, I prefer the shorter flight. !

I find it amazing, given the size of Earth and Venus and the distances involved, that only a portion of the Transit is 100% visible from Earth. Still, is a trip to Oz worth it? Nah, been there, done that in 2004... While it was nice to have it as a notch on the Astronomical Endeavours list (including eclipses and aurorae), it wasn't 'spectacular'.

Seanie.

I understand how you can feel that way Seanie.
Solar transits are not going to blow you away visually.
(I observed the 2004 one on white card pin projection!)
But then again, most of the stuff we observe isn't.

Half the enjoyment for me anyway is the planning,
travel, social aspect of these kind of trips.

Barberskum wrote:

Solar transits are not going to blow you away visually.

try doing it without a filter
Still, I think its impressive and rare enough to warrent a trip.
Its like this, none of us will ever see the likes of it again.