Due to the peculiarities of orbits of the two planets, Venus will pass in front of the Sun from our point of view twice in a few years every hundred years or so. This is called a transit. The last transit of Venus was in 2004, the next is the evening of June 5th 2012. The one after that is in about 105 years.

The event starts at about 5 PM CDT on June 5 and will proceed until well past our sunset. Of course, do not ever look directly at the Sun without proper protection. Venus will appear as a small dot on the surface of the Sun, too small to see without a properly filtered telescope.

Weather permitting, CAAS members will meet at the overflowing parking area across Highway 300 from the west field at about 6 PM to watch the transit (see map below). Later, as the Sun gets low we will move to the observation deck at the PMSP Visitor Center to watch until sunset.

More information can be found here or here.