Thrilled astronomers across much of Europe and Africa reported stunning views of yesterday's rare transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun. The weather only partially co-operated in Ireland, where cloud occasionally obscured the event.
Venus transit watches were held across the State and in Northern Ireland yesterday morning as groups joined to catch a glimpse of an astronomical display that has not been seen for 122 years.
Venus only very occasionally passes in front of the solar disc when viewed from the earth, and rarer still is the opportunity to watch it at home.
"It was a thrilling moment, there was a sense of awe," stated Mr David Moore, chairman of Astronomy Ireland. It staged 10 transit watches across the State with the biggest at the Papal Cross in the Phoenix Park, Dublin.
"The view of the big black spot on the sun was absolutely amazing," he said.
The six-hour long transit started shortly after 6am when Venus first broke the edge of the solar disc. The event ended six hours later when the planet finally glided past the edge of the sun, giving ample time to view the spectacle.
Mr Eoin Gill watched the transit with more than 100 pupils at St Saviour's National School in Waterford. "We did six different class groups and each time the sun came out for them," said Mr Gill, who is manager of the Centre for Advancement of the Learning of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Waterford Institute of Technology.
They were afraid the children would not be interested, he said. "That is what amazed me, they were all very excited to think it was 120 years since the last transit happened."
Solar scientist Dr Ian Elliott watched the transit through a small siting telescope fitted with a solar filter to protect the eyes. "One can appreciate the difficulty astronomers had in the past when trying to make observations," he said.
While the transit is a point of interest for astronomers today, its close observation was vitally important for scientists in the past as a way to measure astronomical distances.
The goal was to measure very precisely how long the transit took, measuring this from two widely separated places on earth, he explained.
Yesterday any would be astronomer could have made such a measurement. "With a small telescope and a lap top you can measure the scale of the universe," Dr Elliott said.
A group watching in the Botanic Gardens at the Ulster Museum in Belfast were first thwarted by the clouds but then clear spells opened up to reveal the transit, said Mr Terry Moseley, a dedicated amateur astronomer.
"As the weather improved more and more people came and all or almost all got good views through filters or by protection," he said.