The monthly Dark Sky Star Party was held on Monday 14 May 2012 at Long Sault Conservation Area.

There was some cloud in the area as we drove out to the site but by the time we were set up it had disappeared. Twilight lingers long on May evenings so we enjoyed views of Venus, Mars and especially Saturn for quite a while. As skies darkened we turned to spring galaxies and previews of summer's globular clusters. We even took in some colourful double stars to add to the eye candy.

Note that the monthly City Sky Star Party is NOT next week, but the week of the 28th.

Check our Observing and Observing Locations pages for additional information about this and other RASC Toronto Centre observing events.

On June 5th the planet Venus will transit across the disc of the Sun.  This is a very rare event: although it was observed just eight years ago, Venus will not be silhouetted against the Sun again until December 11, 2117.

The event will begin with Venus contacting the solar disc at about 6:05 PM.  It will continue until after sunset, but once the Sun is no longer visible the only way to monitor the transit is with video feeds from more westerly locations, over Internet or television.

The appearance of the Transit is similar to an eclipse of the Sun, but much smaller.  During an eclipse, the Moon can completely cover up the Sun.  Venus's apparent size is about 1/30th the width of the Sun's disc, so while its contrast is visible without magnification, there will only be a barely measurable 0.1% dimming of sunlight.

Do not look directly at the Sun with unprotected eyes at any time! Additionally, please do not try to improvise solar protection at the last minute using sunglasses, exposed photographic film, etc. Here are two links about safe Sun observing.

• YouTube video about Venus Transit Safety
• Safe methods for observing the Transit described on the national RASC website

The U of T Dunlap Institute for Astrophysics has distributed over 40,000 Safe Venus Transit Viewers across Canada with the help of the RASC, and many of these viewers are available for free at our events leading up to Transit Day. Additionally, free transit viewers are bundled with the June issue of SkyNews Magazine, a Canadian news-stand publication. You can also find safe methods for observing the transit at local astronomy suppliers, such as EfstonScience, Kendrick Astro Instruments, and Khan Scope Centre.

There are several different planned public observing sites around the GTA...

Fantastic skies await you at the E.C. Carr Astronomical Observatory on the Blue Mountains.

Well? What are you waiting for?

Photo by Steve McKinney.

See the full size photo (at 6.5 MB) and zoom in!

See the annotated photo with Messier objects and constellations marked.