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Members of the Lafayette community and others are invited to join David Hogenboom, professor emeritus of physics, and Michael Stark, assistant professor of physics, in observing the transit of Venus between Earth and the sun next Tuesday morning, June 8.
Hogenboom and Stark will have a telescope equipped with a safe solar filter set up on the west end of the parking deck behind Markle Hall. Observation will begin at 5:45 a.m.
“The sun will rise about 5:30 a.m., and right then Venus will be passing between Earth and the sun, observable in a properly equipped telescope as a small black dot superimposed on the disk of the sun,” Hogenboom explains. “The transit will last until about 7 a.m. The upper level of the Markle deck offers easy access and pretty much unlimited parking as well as good views to the east.
“This is an unusual event,” he adds. “The next time for viewers in North America will be Dec. 11, 2117.”