Community Corner

Rare Venus Transit To Occur Tuesday

On June 5 and 6, you can watch in Gwinnett as Venus will cross the face of the sun for the last time this century.

Although astronomers and scientists don’t expect earthquakes and such as predicted by doomsday theorists, they do say that Tuesday's planetary alignment will be a rare sight. In fact, it will be the last time it will happen this century.

According to NASA, the passage of Venus across the sun only happens twice in a century. It happened in 2004 and is scheduled again for June 5-6, 2012. Although the entire eclipse will be visible from certain countries, in the U.S. it will only be visible as it begins on June 5. The sun will set before the event ends.

Locally, one of the best seats in the house to witness the transit of Venus has to be on top of Stone Mountain from 5-8 p.m. on June 5. The park has partnered with the Atlanta Astronomy Club to give folks a chance to see it. There will be ten large solar-filtered telescopes set up on top of of the mountain. Participants will hear Atlanta Astronomy Club members describe the event.

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According to www.transitofvenus.org, when this transit happens, Venus will be seen as a small dot gliding slowly across the face of the sun. Since this is a twice in a lifetime event, anyone who missed it in 2004 will get one last shot of witnessing it next week. The event will be carried live on a space camera at http://events.slooh.com.

Hey Peachtree Corners, Are you a local amateur astronomer who is following this event? Are you someone who thinks this is just the beginning of the great 2012 doomsday planetary alignments? Tell us your theory in comments.

Find out what's happening in Peachtree Cornerswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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