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including Union Square, the High <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors bags</em></a> Line, Riverside Park South and 125th Street in Harlem, where the temporarily star-struck can go to see the transit safely. It occurs when the orbits of Venus, Earth and the <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors handbags</em></a> Sun put them into alignment along the same plane. Watching it with the naked eye is dangerous, and all but impossible, given the Suns blinding glare.

At the viewing sites, <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors handbags</em></a> amateur astronomers and academics will have telescopes with special solar filters, as well as projection devices and solar glasses, available to the public. In a sense, it is an eclipse, <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors bags</em></a> said Summer Ash, director of outreach for Columbia Universitys astronomy department, who will be stationed in the southeast corner of Union Square. Its the same phenomenon. Its just that Venus <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors outlet</em></a> is so much farther away than the Moon.

In New York City, the transit of Venus, weather permitting, will be visible until sundown, at 8:24, letting New Yorkers see just <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors bags</em></a> the first third of the event. In the 1700s, scientists realized that the transit of Venus could help determine the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Mathematical models and <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>discount michael kors</em></a> diagrams stemming from the 1769 transit put the distance at 95 million miles, just 2 million more than what is now accepted to be the average distance.

If we know <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>discount michael kors</em></a> the distance between the Earth and the Sun, we can use that to get distances to other stars, said Jason Kendall, a board member of the Amateur Astronomers Association of <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>discount michael kors</em></a> New York and a volunteer solar system ambassador for NASA. Ultimately, the transit of Venus gave us a fundamental measuring stick for all distances in the universe.

Mr. Kendall will <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>discount michael kors</em></a> oversee a viewing platform on a pier in Riverside Park South, near 68th Street, on the Upper West Side. He will bring a projection device, fashioned from an inexpensive telescope <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>discount michael kors</em></a> and a funnel covered with a fabric screen. He is expecting about a dozen other amateur astronomers to bring their own telescopes outfitted with solar filters.

Two other prime locations <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors handbags</em></a> are also along the Hudson River, with clear views of the sunset: a section of the High Line park, at 14th Street, and the concrete pier at the Intrepid Sea, <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors outlet</em></a> Air and Space Museum, at 12th Avenue and 46th Street. At the Intrepid, a nonprofit group, NYSkies Astronomy Inc., will have several specially equipped telescopes available.

John Pazmino, the groups <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors handbags</em></a> co-founder, remembers watching the 2004 transit from Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side, when the event was in progress as the sun rose. Conditions were such that the <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>discount michael kors</em></a> transit was visible with the naked eye. There was a very dense haze so that you could look at the Sun directly and most people, including myself, did see Venus, <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors outlet</em></a> he said. The sun was orangy, like a pumpkin, and it looked like someone took a pin and poked it.

In Harlem, Columbias astronomy department will invite the public to <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors outlet</em></a> have a look from a sidewalk on 125th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. There will be projection devices, which allow for multiple views at one time, along with <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>discount michael kors</em></a> solar glasses and special solar telescopes. Were bringing astronomy to people where they are not necessarily looking for it, Ms. Ash said. Instead of prime locations where a lot of <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors handbags</em></a> the amateur astronomy community will be, we prefer crowded streetscapes.

If the clouds conspire to turn the transit into a nonevent here, there is always video. NASAs Web site will <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors shoes</em></a> be live-streaming the transit from an observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii starting at 5:30 p.m., Eastern time.

The American Museum of Natural History will link to NASAs webcast, projecting <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors bags</em></a> a portion of the transit on a large screen in its Cullman Hall of the Universe, to be followed by a related film in the Hayden Planetarium. Mr. Kendall was <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors outlet</em></a> already feeling the tug of the museums big screen. If its very cloudy, I might pack up my stuff and go there, he said. At the Intrepid, Mr. Pazmino vowed <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors bags</em></a> to wait and watch, no matter the weather. Our philosophy, he said, is to let Mother Nature kill the event, not human nature.

And while, according to NASA, there have <a href=" http://www.cheapmichaelkorshandbags.org/"><em><strong>michael kors handbags</em></a> been 53 transits since 2000 B.C.