Community residents will get the chance to watch Venus visibly travel past the sun today beginning around 5 p.m.

The Charleston Carnegie Public Library will have several telescopes set up starting at 4:30 p.m. outside the library to let visitors view the event safely.

Beth Lugar, the library’s youth program coordinator, said they hope to have at least three viewing points for the public, including a projection telescope and a telescope with a solar filter. She said local astronomers are providing the telescopes.

“You don’t have to have a library card; you don’t have to live in Charleston; anyone can come,” Lugar said. “We’ve had babies all the way to retirees.”

The transit of Venus creates a dark spot moving across the sun, similar to a solar eclipse. The effect lasts for several hours; however, it is dangerous to look at any solar event with the naked eye, binoculars or an unfiltered telescope.

Venus will not cross the face of the sun again until December 2117.

Lugar said the library will keep the telescopes set up until the sun is obscured by the tree line. She said the event should be viewable for several hours.

Lugar said the astronomers are very enthusiastic on educating the public about telescopes and what they can see with them. She said they are setting up before the event to get people used to using a telescope and looking at the sun through them.

Everyone who comes to the viewing should a get a chance to see the transit, she said.

“The lines move pretty quickly,” Lugar said. “We’ve had 39 people show up before, and nobody felt left out.”

Seth Schroeder can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].