ISLAMABAD, June 6: Meteorologists have warned people not to see the sun with naked eye on Tuesday, as it can cause permanent blindness within seconds. "All the observations that involve looking at the sun on Tuesday are dangerous and precautions must be taken to avoid permanent eye damage," they said and added: "Never observe the sun directly through a telescope or binoculars without proper optical filters fit to protect your eyes."

A 'transit of Venus' will be observed from the earth, including Pakistan, from 10.14am to 4.27pm, they said. "When Venus comes directly between the sun and the earth, it will be seen to move across the bright solar disk," the meteorologists explained.

Venus will appear as a black dot moving slowly from West to East across the southern most part of the sun's bright disk with a diameter of about 12,103km. Only six such events have occurred since the invention of telescope (1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874 and 1882) and the next two transits would occur on June 8, 2004 and June 6, 2012, they said.

On Tuesday, half of the globe, including Europe, Africa, Asia and eastern parts of America, would be able to watch the tiny black dot of the Venus planet. -APP