The Transit of Venus - June 5, 2012
An Observing Project in Canada's Northwest Territories

Why the Northwest Territories?
 

"To see the entire transit, travel to Canada’s northern regions is required. Yellowknife offers the most promising cloud and sunshine statistics of any northern site, Europe or North America, with sunshine hours averaging 64 percent of the maximum – and you can drive there." - Jay Anderson

The map on the right shows the world visibility of the 2012 Transit of Transit.  As the transit occurs in June, summertime in the northern hemisphere, the extreme northern latitudes of the world will be able to observe the whole transit during the long days (the Midnight Sun, the White Nights).      Click on the map or here for a full-size version.  The red dot on the full-size map indicates the location of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.      Meteorologist Jay Anderson, quoted above, favours Yellowknife for observing the complete Transit from North America.  For a quick link to Jay's site, clink here.

Commentary:  The next Transit of Venus occurs in 2117, beyond our lifetimes, so this 5 June 2012 is the last chance to observe this phenomena.  We encourage you to see it from wherever you can.  Undoubtedly central and eastern Australia offer the best weather prospects for the Transit, followed by the favourable aspects and weather in Hawai'i (our prior choice).  Visibility in the United States Southwest should be exceptionally good, but the region does not see the whole Transit from start to finish. Tahiti has the historical connection to Cook's voyage to observe the Transit of 1769 and would be very interesting, but misses the whole Transit this time.      If you want to see the whole transit from North America or Europe than you have to travel to the far northern reaches to do so. And Yellowknife, NWT, Canada has the best weather prospects for observing the whole Transit of any northern site according to Jay Anderson.      But there may be other reasons to observe the transit from Yellowknife.  First, one can drive to Yellowknife in 15 hours from Edmonton, Alberta, and enjoy interesting scenery and wildlife along the way.  If driving up here then check the travel section of these pages.  Second, if driving up then one can bring substantially more equipment than flying to another location at greater cost.  Third, cost containment. With the annular solar eclipse in the USA Southwest and the total solar eclipse in Australia this year, for some folks it makes more sense (cents) to observe the Transit from Yellowknife.  Fourth, enjoy the midnight Sun (or maybe just longer summer days), bring your fishing gear, relish the friendly atmosphere of our Northern hospitality, and for those golfers among us, bring your golf clubs for a late night game. Looking forward to seeing you all here!

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