Not too early at all. Best to be prepared. Somehow the idea of Hawaii in June does not appeal to me. January would be better. :) While we will not be able to see the entire event from Utah, the Transit of Venus page (http://www.transitofvenus.nl/details.html) shows that from the SLC area the Sun will be over 50 degrees in altitude at the start of the transit and 15 degrees at maximum. So I'm thinking a public event in the SL valley might be in order. Actually the Museum of Natural History's new digs will be open by then up above Research Park. Nice, low western horizon from there. Plus some of their staff have already expressed interest in some sort of SLAS/museum events. The SLAS board has already talked about this and I'm sure it will come up again. Clear skies! patrick On 04 Jul 2011, at 15:55, Jay Eads wrote:

I know I'm early for this, but besides the solar eclipse on May 20th of 2012, there is a transit of Venus on June 5th, 2012 at around sunset I believe. Any plans for next year to set up some solar scopes so this can be viewed? Since it is in the late afternoon and at sunset, and June 5th is on a Tuesday, it might be fun to have some solar scopes and then to do some observing that evening for those able to view that night. After June 5th, 2012, the next transit of Venus will be December 10-11, 2117 so for most of us, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So now its out there so any plans for it?

Here's the one site:

http://www.transitofvenus.org/june2012/where-to-be

Looks like Sky & Telescope is going to Hawaii to view it:

http://www.insightcruises.com/top_g/st03_top.html

Hmmm, might be time for a Hawaii trip . . . .

-- Jay Eads