Live Streaming Video of Venus Transit Starting at 6:03 p.m. Eastern, weather permitting, skywatchers around the world can begin looking for Venus to start crossing the face of the sun, a rare event that won't come around again for 105 years. Don't worry about the clouds hindering the view on the East Coast. NASA is streaming live video of the event from Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and also offering a live Web chat with experts ready to answer questions. You can also follow the conversation and see photos and videos on Twitter using the hashtag, #venustransit. NASA explains the history behind the transit of Venus and offers a map showing where it can be watched around the world. It was the transit of Venus in 1769, as my colleague Ken Chang explains, that allowed scientists to answer one of the most vexing scientific questions of the day: How far away is the Sun? Astronomy groups and academics all over the world prepared to view the event, which can be seen until sunset on the East Coast and then in other parts of the world starting at sunrise on Wednesday. In New York, amateur astronomers and academics, as my colleague Lisa Foderaro reports , are making telescopes with special solar filters as well as solar glasses available to the public so that people can try to get a glimpse of Venus safely. It is dangerous to look directly at the Sun, in the same way it is for an eclipse. Another way to watch is via this Google hangout with amateur astronomers . Dozens of photos gathered for the transit can be seen on Flickr.