Star-struck pupils enjoy rare sight (From Warrington Guardian)

Star-struck pupils enjoy rare sight

of Venus passing across the sun

CHILDREN in Newton enjoyed a rare glimpse of Venus crossing the sun on Tuesday.

This rare event - it happens only four times every 243 years - was last seen and photographed by professional astronomers in 1882.

At St Aelred's, the school telescope and a piece of white paper helped its 1,123 pupils, plus staff, to see the tiny dot moving directly between the earth and the sun.

The six-hour transit left its observers star-struck.

A spokesman said: "It looked like a tiny dot but showed how big the sun is in comparison."

In 1639 the first observations of the transit confirmed the Corpernican view of the universe and demonstrated that Venus was another world, like the earth.