I learned that a Transit of Venus across the sun takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. This experience is among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena. It only happens every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart. A really cool fact is that the next pair of transits won't happen until 2117 and 2125! So, a very few, maybe none of us today will be around to see the next one happen because this transit will be the last Venus transit this century.
Sadly, you need some "special lens" or whatever to actually see this happen. I of course don't. I googled and tweeted instead. (It's what I do best.) Found out that NASA was having live webcast footage for you to view the transit. I spent about 3 hours watching the live feed along with keeping up with the conversations on twitter with the hashtag #VenusTransit. Coming acorss some of the coolest pictures I've seen. Here are my favorites.
(this one i got from my NASA Space Weather Media App from my phone)
THIS ONE IS PROBABLY MY FAVORITE!
I guess a toast goes out to the ancient nerds and geeks who helped us understand our place in the solar system by observing the Venus Transit.
Cheers!
xoxo
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