What is a transit of Venus?
A transit of Venus is the observed passage of the planet across the disk of the sun. The planet Venus, orbiting the sun on the inside track, catches up to and passes the slower earth. Venus, appearing as a small dot in the foreground, will move from left to right across the sun. The word transit means passage or movementin this case, across the face of the sun. http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/venus/Sun2004+2012-1.GIF Path of Venus across the sun’s disk; from Fred Espenak. When is the transit of Venus? The next transit of Venus is June 5-6, 2012, as timed from the prime meridian at Greenwich, England. From that part of the world, the transit begins on the latter part of June 5 and continues into June 6. The exact time is dependent on your latitude and longitude because of parallax (the feature which gives the transit its scientific importance). The transit begins on June 5, 2012, around 22:09 Universal Time (U.T.) and ends June 6 around 04:49 U.T. Note that 04:49 p.m. on J
