When is a transit not a transit?

By John Freeman on June 9, 2004

Image: NASA

OK, here’s a question about shared experience. If you couldn’t actually look directly at the transit of Venus yesterday (unless you wanted your eyes boiled or something), is there a difference between standing out in your garden with a pair of binoculars trained on a piece of carboard and watching the six-hour “event” on TV?

Is the experience anything less since both methods of “sharing” are safe?

Where does experience end and watching start?

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.