Skywatchers: Where to See the Transit of Venus, A Rare Astronomical Event

Alaska may have missed out on the prime viewing of the annular solar eclipse on May 20 -- though it definitely caught some of it -- but there's no better place to be than the Last Frontier to see the June 5 transit of Venus, an astronomical event that only rolls around twice every century or so.

The transit of Venus is a 7-hour event in which Venus -- one of only two planets between the Earth and its heavenly light -- treks its way across the surface of the sun. The transits come in groups of two, set eight years apart, but then don't occur again for more than a century. The last one occurred in 2004, making the June 5 event the last one until 2117. Before 2004 the last one was in 1882. So unless modern medicine makes some immense strides soon, this year's event will be the only chance many living Earthlings have to see it.

But here's the catch: Just like the recent solar eclipse, the best viewing will be in limited geographic regions. The Los Angeles Times reports that the transit "will be visible in its entirety only from the western Pacific, eastern Asia, eastern Australia and at high northern latitudes."

High northern latitudes, you say? Sounds like Alaska, no? ...

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