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On Tuesday morning, June 8th, for the first time since 1882, Venus will pass directly between Earth and the Sun. For six hours the planet's black silhouette will crawl across the face of our star. It might be a pretty sight, or not. No one can say for sure because no one alive today has seen a transit of Venus.

If you live near the east coast of North America, you can see the crossing. The transit will be underway at dawn and visible for as much as two hours after sunrise.

Before you read the rest of this story, a reminder: Never look at the Sun without eye protection. The early morning Sun rising through the mist, reddened and dimmed by distant clouds, is so tempting; it seems safe to stare. Don't! Even a low-hanging Sun can cause eye damage. Proper transit-watching techniques are discussed below.

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http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/02jun_viewersguide.htm?list675347


A world transit viewing availability map is at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/images/viewersguide/Map2004-2.gif

It looks like people in most places on earth will be able to see at least some of it, except those in the western U.S., western Canada, most of Mexico, a bit of western Central America, southern South America, and New Zealand. (And Antarctica, but I don't think we have any people visiting from there, do we? )


There's also a pretty fascinating story about Capt. James Cook and his expedition to Tahiti in 1769 for the purpose of viewing the Venus transit that year, at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/28may_cook.htm

Quite a contrast, the scientific instruments and methods they had then, compared to now.


There will be another Venus transit on June 6, 2012; they occur in pairs, eight years apart.

But hopefully we won't be here for the next one!