I'm Your Venus

Rise and shine! Get your butt out of bed at the asscrack of dawn for an amazing astrogeek event. Tomorrow morning at sunrise, Venus will visibly pass across the face of the Sun, a phenomenon called a "transit of Venus." The last transit was in 1882, so this is a big deal, except that there will be another one in 2012—the transit is on a 122-year, 8-year, 105-year, 8-year cycle.
In honor of the transit of Venus (Chicagoist is reading that in a booming, echoing voice, for dramatic effect), Adler planetarium is hosting a ToV viewing event, kicking off at sunrise tomorrow morning at 5:18 a.m.. If it’s not too cloudy, the Adler folks will be setting up telescopes on the northeast side of the planetarium and narrating the transit. The transit will be complete by 6:25. You can learn more about the transit here, and Chicagoist wants to warn you: do not stare at the sun.