DAHLONEGA - North Georgia College & State University's Coleman Planetarium will host the last crossing of Venus across the face of the sun until 2117. Taking place on Tuesday, June 5, teams will film the event from the west balcony of the Health & Natural Sciences Building, and will feed live video down to the projection system inside the planetarium.
"These transits occur in pairs, with the transits within a pair happening eight years apart," Dr. Joseph Jones, associate professor of physics, said. "However, pairs occur more than 100 years apart. The transit happening on June 5 will be the second of a pair - the first occurred in 2004."
Johannes Kepler first predicted a Venus transit in the 17th century, a prediction that lead to Edmund Halley studying and timing the crossing in the early 18th century to find a parallax angle-a measurement that gave humanity an absolute distance to Venus, opening doors for other measurements, such as the size of our solar system.
"As we broadcast the transit, those in attendance will also hear a presentation on the history and importance of Kepler's and Halley's discoveries, and how this phenomenon changed astronomy and science," Jones said. "Observers will also be able to view the transit through telescopes equipped with solar filters."
The event begins at 5 p.m. at Coleman Planetarium, and will run until 9 p.m. The transit will begin at 6:04 p.m. In case of clouds or inclement weather, the planetarium will broadcast a live feed from Hawaii.
Jones warned that people should not view the transit without the proper filter. "Immediate and permanent eye damage will result from viewing the transit without the appropriate filter," he said.
(Read more about the Venus transit by clicking on the link below.)
Thursday
July 3rd, 2025
9:03AM
