Venus Transit

Projector Image of Venus Transit, 2012

It's not often you'll see a bunch of people squinting into telescopes in broad daylight. But today was I was among a group of astronomers and stargazers in an open field along side of Hyde Observatory making the rare exception. Venus passed between the Earth and the sun today. The celestial event is called a Transit. 

Transits of Venus are pretty rare because the planet's orbit is tilted relative to the Earth's and the position of the planets only line up relative to the sun four times every 243 years. Actually the Transits occur in rough couplings. For example the last Transit of Venus occurred in 2004 and, a mere eight years later, we have its mate. The next occurrence won't be until 2117 with its mate following another eight years behind.  

The collection of strollers, lawn chairs, bottles of sunscreen, telescopes with lens filters, and people spilled across a hot, otherwise miserable, late afternoon was amazing. 

Sometimes the position of things, like Venus and the Sun, the people gathered around are so beautiful that I feel woozy and small inside.