Naples, Italy

June 6, 2012 -

Our readers and Tumblr followers from Bahrain to Berkeley sent in spectacular images of the rare celestial event that began yesterday. From Maui to Norway, the world watched the 6-hour, 40-minute showcase through special telescopes, live streams or with the naked eye through cardboard glasses. The planet Venus passed directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk starting at about 6pm ET yesterday. The next transit is 105 years away -- beyond all of our lifetimes but just a small moment in the timeline of the universe. The following is a look at images sent in from our Tumblr followers as well as a couple from Discovery News Space Editor Ian O'Neill who co-hosted a live webcast of the event. This image comes from DiscoveryNews' Tumblr follower From Adam Allegro. He took this one from Naples, Italy.

Waiting in Line From DiscoveryNews' Tumblr follower wordupnerdup -- "in line to witness." - Lawrence Hall of Science. Berkeley, Calif.

Venus Transit in Bahrain From a DiscoveryNews' Tumblr follower: I took this in Riffa, Bahrain, using a Canon powershot SX210 IS around 6:10 a.m.

Binocular Projector From DiscoveryNews' Tumblr follower garrettishere "Transit of Venus through a binocular projector."

2012 Supermoon Images From Our Readers

Bacoli, Italy From Adam Allegro near Naples, Italy. His collection can be found here. From his blog: "Here are the first photos (that I have seen anyways) from Europe of Venus transiting the sun. Conditions were very good for shooting this morning, and I had about a 4 minute window before clouds completely covered the sun. I was shooting with a Nikon D800, 28-300mm lens, Slik Pro tripod, and remote release, and all photos were taken from the Bacoli sea wall just outside of Naples, Italy. No filters were even necessary.

Venice, California From DiscoveryNews' Tumblr follower Benjamin Sassoon. Taken in Venice, California with a Nikon D90 DSLR with Tamron 28-300mm zoom and Hoya x4 ND filter.

Mt. Wilson Observatory, Calif. From Discovery News Space Editor, Ian O'Neill, who co-hosted a live webcast from the Mt. Wilson summit. This was taken late in the day with a Nikon Coolpix. From Ian: "Special thanks to Kevin LeGore of Woodland Hills Telescope and Focus for lending me his excellent telescope!"

Mt. Wilson Observatory, Calif. From Ian O'Neill: "Taken through a telescope with my iPhone camera."

Jakarta, Indonesia Al Halim Khasia R says he was able to view the transit via "a projection of Transit of Venus using You Are Galileo telescope" from Planetarium Jakarta.

Jakarta, Indonesia Another shot of the transit by Al Halim Khasia R at Planetarium Jakarta.

California By J. Peters Taft via Twitter.

PHOTOS: 2012 Annular Solar Eclipse Images From Our Readers

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