From time to time I like to note the motions of the heavens since lots of stuff seem to be going on up there. That may just be an effect of sampling error but it does appear over the past few years that the planets are doing somersaults around each other trying to get our attention.

This week brought a transit of Venus visible to much of the world, our sister planet caught scurrying across the face of the sun like a skinny dipper scrambling for a towel. Around the earth reactions to the event reflect a spectrum from outright apathy to heartwarming numinosity. Here on earth the primates scurry around to otherwise unfrequented places and wear funny looking goggles. Even fancier goggles are busy staring as the sun's rays pierce the fearsome clouds of our nearby neighbor for hints and glimpses of the constituents composing the maelstrom.

Coming a little over a century apart these transits come in pairs. This being the warm-up transit, we should all be ready for the celestial encore in another eight years, already a banner year for various forms of nuttery. And it's not just us, for throughout history the event has entranced a distinguished line of notable figures. Captain James Cook (not Kirk!) devoted some of his famous expedition to observing the transit to enable a computation of the size of the solar system. Not that they succeeded but how nice is Tahiti in June? (Sousa even wrote a march about it but I still found myself whistling Holst.)

The planet of love is currently no place to find it unless you're an extremophile lusting after sulfur at high pressures and temperatures. The atmosphere (largely of carbon dioxide) at the Venusian surface presses about the same as a kilometer's worth of water below the earth's oceans. Good luck finding any water at all on Venus. Any liquid lakes there are more likely made of more surf-resistance materials like say, lead. Without a tilt to its axis Venus has no seasons - it's always just hot, and I mean hot enough for the ground to faintly glow.

The bringer of peace and guardian of love meets up with our local bringer of warmth and light. A chance for optimism if you look at it just right, now playing at the intersection of the morning star and the star that supports all life as we know it. We should be encouraged never to overlook any portent of optimism, even if you have to look up.