Hundreds of students turned up near Gandhi statue on the Puducherry beach to witness one of the most exciting and rare astronomical events of the century, Transit of Venus, here on Wednesday.
The space opposite the Gandhi statue was one of the 70 places in Puducherry region where arrangements were made by the Pondicherry Science Forum and the Department of Science, Technology and Environment (DST&E).
Individuals and excited children armed with solar filter glasses were present to witness the transit of planet Venus between the earth and the sun.The transit was visible only after 6.10 am because of the clouds despite the sun being up by 5.50 am, said Mathivanan, an associate professor in physics at the Bharathidasan College.
He added that this time the transit happened in the northern hemisphere of the solar disk from east to west while it happened in the southern hemisphere in 2004.
Meanwhile, Puducherry experienced heavy rains with lightning on Wednesday night. Met office predicted that the region may experience couple of days of rains and then the hot conditions would prevail following it.