On Wednesday 6 June 2012, Venus will transit (or pass in front of) the Sun. This event will next occur on 11 December 2117 making the transit of Venus literally a once in a lifetime event. Aside from the astronomical aspect of this event, there are also significant historical links between the 1769 Transit of Venus and Captain Cooks secret mission to discover the ‘Great Southern Land’.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVi6rHQ-RLg
Given that this event can NOT be observed directly through a telescope without specialist expensive astronomical filters, now is the time to give some consideration as to how your students can INDIRECTLY observe the transit using inexpensive ($50 approx.) telescopes or binoculars. I have just uploaded the above YouTube video which goes through a couple of ways of observing the transit indirectly.
