Venus and the Sun sightings captured from La Jolla on Tuesday, June 5

Hobbiest astronomer Matt Mofidi of La Jolla set up a telescope at Scripps Park most of the day on Tuesday, June 5 to watch Venus in transit across the sun -- the next shot at seeing this is December 2117.

He welcomed visitors and residents to take a peek at the celestral phenom ‘til sunset. His telescope was heavily filtered, he assured viewers, to protect their eyes from any sun damage.

The entire transit lasted more than six hours.

When Venus passes directly between Earth and the Sun, we see the distant planet as a small dot gliding slowly across the face of the Sun. Historically, this rare alignment is how we measured the size of our solar system. The view is like a front row seat to the transit method, by which we now find planets around distant stars. —Susan DeMaggio