The Venus transit
[The transit of Venus]. This is a bit of a blast from the past. On June 8, 2004, Venus past between the Earth and the Sun - causing a shadow to appear on the surface of the Sun, as can be seen in the image above. This black and white image is just one small section of the Sun but the event was viewable with simple projection telescopes and some people tried with their eyes with proper solar glasses (never look at the Sun directly). The above image was taken using a simple camera connected to a 3.5" Newtonian Reflector at the [University of Birmingham Astronomical Society]. The eclipse lasted about 6 hours and was visible from most of Europe, Africa and Asia. The last time it occurred before 2004 was in 1882. The next time is [June 6th 2012] (North America favourable) but there won't be another one until 2117 - so if you want to see it worth planning for it.
