PHOTO GALLERY: Spectators at MU view transit of Venus

Spectators gather to see the transit of Venus between the sun and the Earth on Tuesday. Members of the Central Missouri Astronomical Association and MU astronomers set up telescopes, and MU gave out eclipse glasses for the crowd at the Laws Observatory on top of the MU Physics Building.   |  Tatiana Fernandez

People line up Tuesday to go to the telescope atop the MU Physics Building. About 500 people went up to the roof to view the transit of Venus, according to Angela Speck, the director of astronomy for MU. The line started on the ground floor and filled the staircase of the five-story building.   |  Tatiana Fernandez

Lines form Tuesday outside the MU Physics Building, where members of the Central Missouri Astronomical Association set up telescopes in the parking lot and invited the public to look at the transit of Venus between the sun and the Earth, an event that will not occur again for 105 years.   |  Tatiana Fernandez

Jesse Crews, 7, looks at the transit of Venus on Tuesday through the telescope of Laws Observatory atop the MU Physics Building.   |  Tatiana Fernandez

Alice Wondra looks through the telescope of Laws Observatory atop the MU Physics Building on Tuesday. "I couldn't see it," she told her husband afterward. She went up to the telescope again and spotted it on the second try.   |  Tatiana Fernandez

After a mostly clear day, clouds cover Venus right before sunset, blocking the view for the last people waiting in line for their turn on the telescopes Tuesday at Laws Observatory.   |  Tatiana Fernandez

Venus is seen from MU as a large dark spot on the upper right of the sun as it makes its way between the Earth and the sun Tuesday. The smaller dark dots are sunspots. The transit of Venus will not be seen again until 2117.   |  Tatiana Fernandez