Facilities at Nehru Planetarium to witness rare Venus transit

CITIZENS can witness the rare celestial phenomenon,of planet Venus passing between the Sun and the Earth on Wednesday morning,at the Nehru Planetarium in Worli.

The planetarium will have telescopes set up for people to view the transit. “It will be visible in the city from just after sunrise around 6 am until 10.22 am. As the sun rises,one will be able to see Venus as a silhouette on the disk of the Sun,” said Arvind Paranjpye,director of the planetarium.

The phenomenon repeats every 243 years,with pairs of transits every eight years between gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. During the transit,Venus appears as a a small dark dot on the disk of the Sun.

The last transit was on June 8,2004. “This event is extremely rare because none of us will be alive to see the next one,which will occur in 2117,” said Paranjpye. The next pairs of transits will occur only between December 2117 and December 2125.