Get a filter and look up: That dot is Venus

HONOLULU — Stargazers around the world are setting up special telescopes and passing out cardboard eclipse glasses to view the once-in-a-lifetime celestial cameo of Venus passing in front of the sun.

The transit of Venus — a planetary spectacle that won't occur again until 2117 — won't be enough to significantly block the sun's light, but it will give Earth's closest star a moving beauty mark. Venus is currently Earth's closest neighboring planet, although Mars occasionally has that distinction.

AP Photo/NASA

This map provided by NASA shows the visibility for the transit of Venus passes in fro...