Transit of Venus day - Riverton

Looking at the weather maps, it seems much of New Zealand is having a rough time today, which is unfortunate for those astronomers looking to witness the transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun.
They should have come to Southland, it's beautiful here - the skies are clear and not a breath of wind blows.
Here are two images caught 5 minutes ago.

It's probably not too late - get the car fired up, board a plane, whatever it takes, get down here!

RadioLive chat

I was up early this morning, talking with Tony and Helen on the Garden Show @ RadioLive, about moon planting, Venus and her imminent transit, log-fires, artichokes and liquid feeding with seaweed soups. Last night we visited friends and sat by their fire, eating wonderful German baking and equally wonderful Pommy beetroot-and-chocolate square. We watched a film about an Irish island and the story of a selkie, then walked home up the hill, under the moonlight, the serious moonlight...
It was quite balmy.

Coming attraction

The Transit of Venus, where the planet passes between our third rock from the sun and the Mother star. We'll get to see the tiny black orb that is really a planet much the same size as ours, pass across the face of the sun, a journey taking around 6 hours. Star-gazers crave this experience and my appetite for it has been whetted now. On the 6th of June, I'll be watching however I can to catch a glimpse. There are very good on-line opportunities to watch without burning your retina out, so that's the most likely option for me, but I'll look into getting or making a screen, so that I can look directly into the burning eye of the sun :-)
Here's a screen shot from a video on the phenomenon.