Last transit of Venus this century draws stargazers around the world People in Australia, India, South Korea and the Philippines use film strips or glasses to watch Venus pass across the face of the sun Link to this video None of us is likely to see Venus pass, like a moving beauty spot, across the face of the sun again. From the US to South Korea, people around the world turned their attention to the daytime sky on Tuesday and early Wednesday in Asia to make sure they caught the rare sight of the transit of Venus. The next one will not be for another 105 years. "If you can see the mole on Cindy Crawford's face, you can see Venus," Van Webster, a member of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society, told anyone who stopped by his telescope for a peek on Mount Hollywood. Stages of the transit of Venus as seen from Seoul, South Korea. Photograph: Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA For astronomers, the transit was not just a rare planetary spectacle. It was also one of those events they hoped would spark curiosity about the universe and our place in it. Sul Ah Chim, a researcher at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute in South Korea, said he hoped people would see life from a larger perspective, and "not get caught up in their small, everyday problems." "When you think about it from the context of the universe, 105 years is a very short period of time and the Earth is only a small, pale blue spot," he said. Men watch the transit with a telescope in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP The transit was happening during a six-hour, 40-minute span that began just after 6 pm EDT (2200 GMT) in the United States. What observers could see and for how long depended on their region's exposure to the sun during that window of time, and the weather. Those in most areas of North and Central America saw the start of the transit until sunset, while those in western Asia, the eastern half of Africa and most of Europe could catch the transit's end once the sun came up. Hawaii, Alaska, eastern Australia and eastern Asia including Japan, North and South Korea and eastern China got the whole show since the entire transit happened during daylight in those regions. While astronomers used the latest technology to document the transit, the American astronaut Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station was planning to take photos of the event and post them online. A bird lands on the Taj Mahal during the transit. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/AP Online streams with footage from telescopes around the world proved popular for Nasa and other observatories. A Nasa stream midway through the transit had nearly 2m total views and was getting roughly 90,000 viewers at any given moment. Meanwhile, terrestrial stargazers were warned to look at the celestial event only with a properly filtered telescope or cardboard eclipse glasses. If the sun is viewed directly, permanent eye damage could result. In Los Angeles, throngs jammed Mount Hollywood, where the Griffith Observatory rolled out the red carpet for Venus. The last time the city witnessed a Venus transit was 130 years ago in 1882. A 2004 transit was not visible from the western US. Telescopes with special filters were set up next to the lawn and people took turns peering at the sun before and during the transit. Astronomers and volunteers lectured about the rarity of a Venus pass to anyone who would listen. A boy watches the transit of Venus through binoculars with special filters in Gwacheon, South Korea. Photograph: Lee Jin-Man/AP Minutes before Venus first touched the outer edge of the sun, John Philip Sousa's Transit of Venus March blared through. The crowd turned their attention skyward. Jamie Jetton took the day off work to bring her two nephews, six and 11, visiting from Arizona to the observatory. Sporting eclipse glasses, it took a little while before they spotted Venus. I'm still having fun. It's an experience. It's something we'll talk about for the rest of our lives," she said. Bo Tan, a 32-year-old software engineer, took half a day off work and went with his co-workers to the observatory. He admitted he was not an astronomy buff but could not miss this opportunity. He pointed his eclipse glasses at the sun and steadied his Nikon camera behind it to snap pictures. "It makes you feel like a small speck in the universe," he said. In Mexico, at least 100 people lined up two hours early to view the event through telescopes or one of the 150 special viewing glasses on hand, officials said. Observation points were also set up at a dozen locations. Venus, which is extremely hot, is one of Earth's two neighbours and is so close in size to our planet that scientists at times call them near-twins. During the transit, it appeared as a small dot. This will be the seventh transit visible since the German astronomer Johannes Kepler first predicted the phenomenon in the 17th century. A Nasa image of the transit captured by the SDO satellite. Photograph: Nasa/Getty Images It is nowhere near as dramatic and awe-inspiring as a total solar eclipse, which sweeps a shadow across the Earth, but there will be six more of those this decade. In Hawaii, hundreds of tourists and locals passed through an area of Waikiki Beach where the University of Hawaii set up eight telescopes and two large screens showing webcasts of the transit as seen from telescopes at volcanoes on other Hawaiian islands. But minutes after Venus crossed into the sun's path, clouds rolled overhead and blocked the direct view. "It's always the challenge of being in Hawaii - are you going to be able to see through the clouds?" said Greg Mansker, 49, of Pearl City, as he stood in line at a telescope. The intermittent clouds did not stop people from looking up through filters, but it did drive some to crowd the screens instead. Indian women watch the transit of Venus in Chennai. Photograph: Nathan G/EPA Jenny Kim, 39, of Honolulu, said she told her 11-year-old son the planet's crossing would be the only time he would get to see the transit in person. "I don't know what the future will be, so I think this will be good for him," Kim said as she took photos of the webcast with her smartphone. Astronomers also hosted viewings at Pearl Harbor and Ko Olina. In Maui, 20 couples renewed their vows during a ceremony tied to the transit at the Hyatt Regency Maui, a spokeswoman said. Some observers at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, gathered on a campus rooftop, peering at Venus through special filtered glasses and telescopes. "It's not really spectacular when you're looking at it," Kellen Tyrrell, 13, said. It's just the fact that I'm here seeing it. It's just so cool that I get to experience it. Most people do not tend to gaze at the sun for long periods of time because it's painful, but there is a temptation to stare during sky shows such as solar eclipses or transits of Venus. The eye's lens can concentrate direct sunlight on the retina and burn a hole through it - similar to holding a magnifying glass under the blazing sun and setting fire to a piece of paper. Venus is seen passing the sun behind clouds in Losevo, north of St Petersburg, Russia. Photograph: Dmitry Lovetsky/AP It can take several hours for people to notice problems with their eyes but, by that time, the damage is done and, in some cases, is irreversible. During the 1970 solar eclipse visible from the eastern US, 145 burns of the retina were reported, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Experts from Hong Kong's Space Museum and local astronomical groups were organising a viewing on Wednesday outside the museum's building on the Kowloon waterfront overlooking Victoria Harbour. On the east coast of the United States, the amateur astronomer Vince Sempronio was at a viewing hosted by Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland, but clouds there - as in many other places - limited visibility of the spectacle. Many at the college viewing crowded around a laptop to watch the Nasa webcast instead of the Venus move across the sun. Venus begins to cross the sun's face as seen from the west side of Manhattan in New York. I was here at the same spot eight years ago when we had the last transit and I was able to show people, using my telescope then. So I'm not too disappointed," Sempronio said. If modern science and medicine helps, maybe I'll be around in 105 years to see the next one. But I'm not crossing my fingers.