Watching the slowly moving planet Venus against the solar disk is a historical and joyful experience.
Like other parts of the world, astronomy enthusiasts gathered in different cities of Pakistan to watch the spectacular sky show of the Venus transit, which will not happen again for another 105 years or until 2117.
Students, enthusiasts, media persons and faculty members gathered at the Institute of Space and Planetary Astrophysics (ISPA) at Karachi University to watch the spectacular Venus transit. ISPA is located at the hillock near Silver Jubilee gate of the university.
The institute set two telescopes to facilitate the observation of the once-in-a-lifetime celestial event. One small telescope was put on a tripod, while the other was imported from Germany in 1960s and is installed inside a dome on top of the building.
Early morning the Sun appeared on Pakistan’s horizon with a black dot, which was Venus, travelling along the solar disk for many hours.
Although, the cloudy sky dampered the view of the event, people watched the transit whenever the sun was visible in between moving clouds.
According to a PhD student of the institute, the event was observed till 9: 40 am.
Venus is dubbed as the Romans Goddess of Love and also known as the Evening or Morning Star. It rotates in the opposite direction to other planets where the norm is for the Sun to rise from the west and set in the East.
Unlike Solar and Lunar eclipses, the Venus transit is rare phenomena. Only six transits have ever been recorded in the human history.
- Text by Suhail Yusuf/Dawn.com, photos by Dawn.com and Agencies
