It's now only 5 days until the last transit of Venus in the lifetime of anyone living today. Venus is approaching that point in its orbit which will place it directly between earth and sun, an arrangement of no particular significance to any of the bodies involved but of interest to those intelligent and quasi-intelligent beings on this planet who have used these transits to inform themselves about the nature of the celestial environment and mechanics.
This being Connecticut, Meriden to be more particular, there is always a cloud risk which makes any sky viewing a chancy thing. And indeed, the forecast for next Tuesday evening is insalubrious.
So I made do with today. It's been, indeed, a good week since the western sky was clear enough to allow a sighting of Venus after sunset. The last time we looked, Lois and I could barely see a disk for the planet and, with imagination, detect a sort of partial crescent.
Tonight, though, through a light cloud, we could both plainly see a fingernail crescent shape. The planet was several times the size the same glasses had shown last week, and it was most satisfactory. Sometimes our cloudy skies actually cooperate and let us glimpse the elegance of the spheres.
