Crowd gathers on Van Allen roof for glimpse of Venus traversing sun
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Written by: Bill Adams
Image Gallery

University of Iowa professors and students took to the roof of Van Allen Hall Tuesday evening, June 5, to set up five telescopes built exclusively for observing the sun for a public viewing of Venus's transit across the sun. An overcast sky prevented all but a few brief glimpses of the rare astronomical event.

Gallery
A young girl squints looking into the sky.
A man looks into a telescope.
Shadow of a pair of hands holding binoculars projecting an image of the sun onto a white piece of paper.
A man addresses a crowd, gesturing with his hands in the air.
A line of blue sky peeks through cloud cover.
A man pointing a pair of binoculars into the back of a welding helmet.
A young boy covers his right eye while looking into a telescope with his left.
A man points at a projector showing the Venus transit over the sun.
A man and his son sit on the floor looking up.
A girl looks into a telescope.
Telescope view of the sun with a tiny dot, Venus, in the upper left quadrant.
Person looking through a welding mask