THERE'S LITTLE BLACK SPOT ON THE SUN TODAY. IT'S THE SAME OLD THING AS YESTERDAY. I woke this morning at 0432 to meet Azhar in Harvard Square and thence to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to view the much-hyped transit of Venus. We were not alone. I would guess that the line to the rooftop observing area contained over 300 people by 0530. Things that I learned about the Transit of Venus:

• Astronomers have long, greasy hair.
• School children are annoying even when they are rousted from their beds at 0430.
• Dunkin' Donuts is not open that early.
• The transit of Venus looks EXACTLY like the images of the orange circle with a small black dot on it that news shows displayed last.... might as well have been a photograph.
• Seems like the media only promotes rare astronomical occurances, not interesting ones. It's a shame. Just because this black dot hasn't happened since 1882 or whenever, it gets all the love.
• That Azhar is a funny guy.
• Bigger is NOT better when you're looking at the Sun, as the astronomer said this morning.