An App for Student Astronomers

The Transit of Venus App for iPhone or Android

What is the transit of Venus?
When Venus passes directly between earth and the sun, we see the distant planet as a small dot gliding slowly across the face of the sun.  Historically, this rare alignment is how we measured the size of our solar system.  The view is like a front row seat to the transit method, by which we now find planets around distant stars.  
When?
Observers in Australia can see Venus on June6. The entire transit lasts over six hours.  This will be the last transit of Venus to occur in your lifetime.  Next chance: December 2117.

The App http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/getting-involved/phone-app/
In centuries past, explorers traveled around the globe to time a transit of Venus to determine the size of the solar system. We invite you to inspire international collaboration during the 2012 transit of Venus by enabling a digital re-creation of those global expeditions.  This web-based phone application will allow citizens around the world to witness this rare phenomenon and to contribute their observation to a collective experiment. This will literally be the last such opportunity in your lifetime.   

To appeal to a large audience and to have extended utility, the phone app will serve users before, during, and after the transit.  Prior to the transit, participants can practice timing the contacts using personas and local circumstances of past explorers.  Additionally, users can see predicted times of contact for their respective locations.

During the transit, the phone app will connect to a live webcast of the transit of Venus.  Registered users can depress a phone button at the moment of internal contact (when Venus appears within the sun, just touching the sun's edge), and the app will record the exact time and user's location, which would be sent to the global database.

After the transit, users can access their data on a map, edit their entry, and upload descriptions, text, images, or movies.  Other users can comment on entries. 

Visit the Website for more info: http://www.transitofvenus.org/