Well, so as predicted Venus passed over the disk of our Sun yesterday (this morning, if you live in Europe), and it produced quite a show, as many pictures and videos available around testify. To make the view more pleasing, our Sun was showing a discrete amount of solar spots, betraying the fact that we are approaching Solar Max (there is a 11-year cycle of solar activity, which manifests itself visually with black spots appearing on the disk, and on the Earth with auroras and electromagnetic disturbances).

In case you want a quick link to a nice slideshow showing Venus crossing the Sun's disk in a set of some thirty images, please visit this flicker site.

If you watch the show, or any other picture around, please note that Venus is not as big as the pictures show: the correct dimensional ratio with respect to the Sun is one third of that. This is because the Sun is three times as distant from us than Venus is right now. Our Sun is big !