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Venus blocks out sunlight today

Looking directly at the sun with naked eye or through open telescope or binoculars can cause blindness

Staff Correspondent
The planet Venus is set to glide across the face of the Sun today, a rare event that will last 100 times longer than a solar eclipse and could causeblindness.
The six-hour transit has not been witnessed by anyone living and has not occurred for 122 years, and observers will position themselves in Asia, Europe and Africa to gel the
best view.
Scientists will use the cveht to test technologies they will soon deploy to delect similar sized worlds orbiting stars tens of light-years away.
Venus will appear as a tiny black disc against the Earth but po-one should look for it without thc’proper equipment
Looking directly at the Sun with the naked eye, and worse still through an open telescope or binoculars can result in blindness.
Astronomers recommend indirect projection as the safest way to observe the passage of Venus across the Sun, which was predicted by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1627 and first viewed by Briton Jeremiah Horrocks in 1639.
People who want to follow Venus' glide from their homes must use an exposed fresh (unused) X-ray film, which is light darkish black. This big sheet must be placed over the lens of the telescope or binoculars before watching.
It will prevent direct rays of the sun from causing permanent damage to the eyes. The viewfinder of the telescope should be covered as well
People can visit one of the many institutional internet sites planning to stream pictures. But this is an event that should be caught in some fashion.
Enthusiasts in Dhaka can rush to the National Science and Techno-logy Museum from where they will be able to witness the rare eventfrom 11:15am to4:00pm.
Bangladesh Astronomical Association will also organise the
magnificent display in the Kala-bagan Krira Chakra playground through Celestron 8-inch Scnmidt-Cassegrain Telescope and other equipment.
The special alignment of the Earth and Venus required to bring about this event occurs in irregular pairs, with the next set for 2012.
The phenomenon has particular historical significance. The 17th and 18th Century transits were used by the astronomers of the day to work out fundamental facts about the Solar System.
Employing a method of triangulation (parallax), they were able to calculate the distance between the Earth and the Sun - the so-called astronomical unit (AU) - which is about 149.6 million km (or 93 million miles).
This allowed scientists to get their first real handle on the scale of the Solar System and the Universe beyond.
The movement of the planet in front of the Sun will bring about a tiny drop in the brightness of the Earth.
And several research groups will be looking for this dip in light with detectors that will soon fly on space telescopes looking for Earth-sized planets around distant stars. (Courtesy: BBC ONLINE and Reuters)