Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Monday, June 4th.  Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 9:23.   The moon, at full today, will rise at 9:51 this evening.  Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:58.

A partial eclipse of the moon is in progress this morning, but it started at moon set at 6 a.m.  Tomorrow is a much rarer event, a transit of Venus across the face of the sun.  This will start at a few minutes after 6 p.m. When Venus will start crossing the sun from near the top.  While the transit will last nearly 7 hours, we’ll see about 3 hours of it, clouds willing.  The safety precautions are the same as viewing a solar eclipse, that is Do Not Look Directly At The Sun.  Safe approved solar filters that fit in front of a telescope, projection of the sun’s image with a telescope or binoculars are the ways to view this event.  The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be at the Open Space in Traverse City at 6 p.m. Tomorrow for safe views of the event.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Transit of Venus as seen from the Grand Traverse Region. Created using Cartes du Ciel.

These plots are in 30 minute intervals starting around 6:10 p.m.

For more information check out this NASA page.