Millions find their spot in the sun

A Venus craze hit Hong Kong yesterday as hundreds queued for hours outside the Space Museum to join millions of people around the world witnessing an astronomical event last seen 122 years ago.

A lucky 450 people in the queue got free tickets to watch from the roof of the Tsim Sha Tsui museum through filtered telescopes and projectors as a tiny black dot - a silhouette of Venus - moved slowly across the Sun.

Even the hoisting of a No1 typhoon signal at 2.15pm, the first of the year, could not deter enthusiasts.

Dozens of others who did not get tickets had to make do with watching the transit of Venus on a large screen in the museum's lobby. The event took six hours from 1.12pm but Hong Kong, as with most of East Asia and Australia, missed the ending because of sunset.

'The transit of Venus is so rare I just have to watch it,' said Fung Chun-kit, 17, who queued from 9.45am to get inside the museum.

The last time Venus directly passed between Earth and the Sun was in 1882. The next time will be on June 6, 2012. After that, it will be another 122 years, until December 11, 2117.