A large number of foreign visitors, scientists or ordinary tourists, came to Mauritius to observe the rare phenomenon. Although the transit of Venus was finally just a ?beauty spot on the Sun?, experts were not disappointed. It occurs so rarely that it was an event although it was hardly visible. For lay people, however, what had been described as a spectacular event turned out to be a tiny black spot on the Sun. But it at least allowed students to realise that we are really small compared to the Sun since the Earth is no bigger than Venus. Historically, such transits have opened the way to important research. They have, for instance, made it possible to measure the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Today, the transit is widely used as a pedagogical tool to teach astronomy to students. ?All the fuss around the transit was due to the fact that it happens so rarely,? says Dinesh Somanah, director of Mauritius Radio Telescope and lecturer at the University of Mauritius. The next transit is expected in 2012 and then 2117?