The Transit is Tomorrow!

.....Tomorrow is the Transit of Venus across the Sun!  (The last one for more than a hundred years.)  In the past, transits were very important, used to measure the size of the solar system, carefully noting how our location on Earth changed how we saw the eclipse.  In many senses, this is not going to make a huge differences to observers of this transit.  For example, the starting times of this transit (for observers in the continental United States) will see:

..................Venus begins to move in front of the Sun................Venus is entirely in front of Sun
Winona, MN...........5:04:31...............................................................5:22:00...(CDT)
Chattanooga, TN...6:04:27...............................................................6:21:58...(EDT)
Denver, CO............4:05:22...............................................................4:22:50...(MDT)
Seattle, WA............3:06:01...............................................................3:23:07...(PDT)

.....The times involved were obtained from this website.  The astute reader (you) will notice that except for the time zone shifts, the times are really not that different.

.....For North America (barring Alaska, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and some of Canada's islands), the transit of Venus will be ongoing when the Sun sets, so these times will be the beginning of the event, with sunset as the end.

.....If you will be in the Winona area, there will be a telescope with a solar filter (for safe viewing of the transit) at the east end of the park around Lake Winona.  This will be set up near the John L. Schneider Police Shelter near the parking area across from the hospital.  I will be set up from 5 PM until the Sun is no longer visible.  If you are around, I hope to see you there - if you are not, good look observing the Transit.  (After this, I will discuss my next big project.)