Venus moved around the sun today as it normally does, however, sometimes all those important angles and tilts of things in the universe angle and tilt themselves in just the right way to create unique events.  Only twice a century at eight years apart can we little earthlings see the planet Venus move in front of the sun. The first happened in 2004, and the second, today.

Out of storage I dragged my telescope, and with a white sheet of paper stuck between my teeth, and camera around my neck, I stepped outside into the early evening light determined to make a photograph of this event. The sun was setting and by the time I got the light into view without blinding myself, the sun was low. Hence the little tree branches you see popping into the image. I love that this happened. You can see Venus to the left. A little planet looking littler from out here on earth.

If you ponder scale for a second, this is a good illustration of just how big our star is. Keep in mind that Venus is appearing larger here because it is closer to us than the sun is. Same goes for those tree tops. Those would have to be some pretty big tree tops to cover that much of the sun.

I also watched a bit of a live webcast of the transit courtesy of NASA EDGE and the observatory at Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

I hope everyone was able to experience this somehow. Goodnight,
So