Seminole Community College Planetarium
Press Release 060304

For Immediate Release

Contact Person:

Laurent Pellerin
SCC Planetarium Operations & Production
Seminole Community College Planetarium
100 Weldon Blvd
Sanford, Florida 32773-6199
407.328.2409
PelleriL@...

The SCC Planetarium will be Hosting FREE Telescope Viewings of the
Historic Venus Transit on June 8 from 6:30 - 7:30 AM on the Main
Sanford/Lake Mary Campus of Seminole Community College

Twice (8 years apart) every 125 years, Venus passes directly in front
of the Sun as seen from Earth. This phenomena is know as a "Transit." A
Transit is basically the same thing as an eclipse, but of course Venus,
being approximately 26 million miles away, cannot completely cover the
disk of the Sun like the Moon can. On June 8th, Venus will again
transit the Sun. The next one will be in 2012, then another 125 will
follow before it will be seen again.

Unfortunately, here in Florida we will only get to see the tail-end of
the transit just after sunrise, since most of it occurs before the Sun
rises in our time zone. But some is certainly better than none!

IMPORTANT ... IMPORTANT ... IMPORTANT ... IMPORTANT ... IMPORTANT

LOOKING AT THE SUN WITHOUT SPECIAL FILTERS DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR
SOLAR VIEWING CAN CAUSE PERMANENT INJURY TO YOUR EYES!

The SCC Planetarium will be setting up telescopes WITH SPECIAL FILTERS
to safely view this historic event along College Drive behind the
Planetarium. One telescope will be equipped with a very special
hydrogen-alpha filter and an astronomical color camera to record the
event. This camera view will also be displayed on a monitor for you to
see the extra solar details that this very special and expensive filter
can provide. Other telescopes will be set up with white-light solar
filters for direct viewing by the public.

NEWS MEDIA:

We will be providing two line feeds from our telescope video camera for
those TV cameras/trucks equipped with line-input jacks. (BNC
connection) Given the timing of the Venus Transit, this will allow
local news programming to carry the event live. Due to the limit of two
lines, please contact Laurent Pellerin in advance to reserve one line
for your use. Stations that can provide additional amplified line
splitters, may also take a feed from our camera.



Laurent A. Pellerin, Jr.
Operations & Production Manager
Seminole Community College Planetarium
100 Weldon Blvd
Sanford, Florida 32773-6199
407 328 2409 (Office)
407 328 2360 (Show Info)
PelleriL@...