Sun, Venus | featured news

Contact! For the last time in 105 years, Earthlings are watching the planet Venus creep across the surface of the sun during a scientifically significant transit that lasts almost seven hours.

It's your last chance to catch one of the rarest cosmic spectacles - Venus slowly crossing the face of the sun. Weather permitting, the transit of Venus will be visible from much of Earth - Tuesday from the Western Hemisphere and Wednesday from the Eastern Hemisphere. This sight won't come again until 105 years from now - in 2117....

A number of groups were setting up viewing sites in New York for the transit of Venus, an astronomical event that occurs in pairs about once every century.

It's a spectacle that won't repeat for another century - the sight of Venus slowly inching across the face of the sun....