On 8 June 2004 there occurs a transit of the Venus across the face of the Sun. It is a very rare opportunity to observe an entire transit from the British Isles, in fact it is the first transit to be wholly visible from the British Isles since 1283. Some others have been partly visible, most recently in 1882.

Next entirely visibler transit will be in 2247. Transits of Venus take place so infrequently that they are among the rarest of all planetary phenomena - today there is nobody alive who has seen one.

As a little black spot Venus will enter the Sun's disk at 5:13 British Summer Time (BST) and leave it at 11:26 am BST. With clear skies over the South-east on Tuesday morning, chances to observe the transit are very good for London, Dover and Norwich. Good chances also for Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol and Manchester.

Ireland and Scotland have rather small chances to see the Sun's disk. Belfast, Dublin, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow will be rather cloudy. Aberdeen will have a few cloud breaks only in the early hours.