Over 500 Mumbaikars had collected at Worli’s Nehru Planetarium armed with their binoculars and their glasses to catch a view of the transit, which was to occur at 5.30 am. Much to their chagrin, heavy clouds that hung around gloomily till 10.20 am, which was the deadline for this rare phenomenon, obstructed the view. “We have been here since Tuesday night as we were so excited about this event,” said, Aditya Chhatre (17), an astronomy and astrophysics student from Thane. “Four of us stayed over at the Nehru planetarium’s campus since we all live far away from here. Though we haven’t caught a glimpse of the sun yet we are hoping for the best,” he added.

Celestial beauty: Planet Venus is seen as a black dot as it transits across the Sun during the sunrise in Manhattan, New York. Pic/AFP