Don't throw away those eclipse glasses yet. Are you ready for "The transit of Venus?" This is what amounts to an eclipse of the planet Venus. During this type of eclipse, Venus passes between Earth and the Sun. It's fairly rare, currently occurring in bunches about once every 8 years (according to the information I read, it didn't happen at all during the 1900s, though). By all accounts, it is much less impressive than the Solar Annular Eclipse we blogged about here.
On the evening of June 5th, Venus will pass in front of the sun. Just a tiny black dot will be seen crossing the sun in a curved pattern. You must use your eclipse glasses to view this event. It starts on Tuesday, June 5th at 4:06 pm and lasts until sunset. It reaches it's fullest point (where Venus is nearest the center of the sun at 7:25 pm).
There is an awesome website here that shows an animation of the transit.
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