There is an exciting and rare astronomical event occurring this coming June: Venus will be passing in front of the Sun (as viewed from Earth) on 5/6 of June. The transit can be seen in the Maldives on 6th June. The transit would have already started by the time the Sun rises over Maldives that morning, allowing us to catch the event just as Venus reaches center at 6:31 AM. Venus exits the exterior of the disc of the Sun at 9:52 AM.

Venus is the brightest star in the night sky but during the transit, when Venus' orbit around the Sun takes it in between the view of the Sun from the Earth, Venus will appear as a black spot moving across the bright disc of the Sun. Solar filters are required to watch this (otherwise, be ready for eye damage!) and so is a binocular or telescope.

The next earliest Venus transit will not occur until 2117, so if this kind of thing gets you excited you might want to wake up early in the morning on 6th June 2012! Maldivian Association for the Advancement of Science will be holding an event - details later.

More information:
- 2012 Venus Transit - Sun-Earth Day (NASA)
- 2012 Transit of Venus (NASA)
- Transit of Venus (Wikipedia)
- Find out the exact time for your location