Astronomers and star gazers will have their eyes on the sky on Tuesday afternoon to see if they can catch a glimpse of a rare celestial event.
The Transit of Venus will happen on June 5 and occurs when the planet passes directly between Earth and the Sun.
The celestial event will happen over a six hour period beginning at 4:05 p.m. and Venus will appear as a black dot on the disk of the Sun.
TELUS Spark The New Science Centre is holding a viewing party with specially filtered telescopes and glasses to block the Sun's rays.
"It's a very significant event in history, in the history of science, in astronomy. Only six transits of Venus have ever been observed in history. This will be the 7th. There was one in 2004, eight years ago, but we did not see that in southern Alberta," said
The first sighting was recorded in 1639 and the others were recorded in 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882, and 2004.
The Transit of Venus happens in pairs, eight years apart, but is separated by more than a century and will not happen again until 2117.
TELUS Spark has set up a live feed of the event in case the weather does not cooperate.
For more on the Transit of Venus, visit the TELUS Spark The New Science Centre website.
