On Tuesday skywatchers witnessed a rare planetary spectacle, as the planet Venus appeared to cross the face of the sun. If you missed it, you're out of luck. This once-in-a-lifetime event won't happen again until 2117.
"You have to take advantage of something like this," said Jesse Rogerson, a researcher and programmer in astronomy and space sciences at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto.
Rogerson and his Science Centre colleagues hosted a free event on Tuesday evening, as did other institutions, observatories and universities across the country.
As the curious looked through telescopes and protective solar glasses, they watched in amazement as Venus crossed the sun, with a full-sized planet looking like nothing more than small black ball.
The transit began at 6:04 p.m. ET. The event lasted two hours, before the sun set.
According to Rogerson, scientists used Venus' transit to dig deeper into the mysteries of the universe.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope studied the spectacle in hopes of understanding more about Venus' transit, as well as similar transits made by planets in other solar systems.
Rogerson explained the alignment in simple terms, using a pie plate.
With a yellow dot in the centre to represent the sun, Rogerson placed the Earth and Venus at the outer edges of the plate.
It takes eight years for these two planets to travel around the sun and return to their starting point. Each time they complete this journey, the Earth and Venus are in a slightly different position.
"They're a little bit behind," said Rogerson.
"The next time this happens, the Earth and Venus will be even a little bit further behind," he explained.
Since Venus only makes its visible trek across the sun twice a century, there have only been seven transits since the invention of the telescope in 1610.
"There was a crossing in 2004, and it was spectacular. It was the first time that Venus has made this crossing in 120 years," Rogerson told CTVNews earlier in the week.
The pairs of rare events are typically either 105.5 years or 121.5 years apart, he said.
Last night's event clearly sparked the public's fascination, sending people of all ages and from all walks of life to local star parties to watch the rare transit.
Between two and three thousand people were expected on Tuesday to watch this show in space at the Ontario Science Centre, according to Rogerson.
That engagement, both at this event and others like it held around the world, was significant.
"It got the public interested in space," said Rogerson.
Indeed, as curious onlookers around the world took to Twitter, they shared their feelings about this historic event and mankind's place in the universe.
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