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Transit of Venus

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Shawn Fainn:
For anyone interested.. about once every 105 years you can see Venus as it passes between the Earth and Sun (appears as a black dot on the Sun). Happening today and tomorrow June 5-6th.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus

Gina:
Quote from Wikipedia:

Venus transits are historically of great scientific importance as they were used to gain the first realistic estimates of the size of the Solar System. Observations of the 1639 transit, combined with the principle of parallax, provided an estimate of the distance between the Sun and the Earth that was more accurate than any other up to that time.

Cool post.  Thanks, Shawn!

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