A MORNING of glorious sunshine across much of the country rewarded thousands of people hoping to catch a glimpse of yesterday's transit of Venus.

The event, which occurs when the planet can be seen crossing the Sun, is one of the rarest in astronomy. The last Venus transit was in 1882.

People in Britain will not experience another until 2247.

Amateur and professional astronomers had a grandstand view as the tiny planet started to move across the Sun's disc at 6.19am.

All manner of equipment was used to capture the moment, from high-resolution cameras and telescopes to solar viewing masks and makeshift pinhole cameras.

Experts warned of the dangers of gazing directly at the sun without protection.

Venus, the Earth's closest planetary neighbour, appeared as a sharply defined black dot 30 times smaller than the Sun's diameter as it slowly moved from left to right over six hours.

Among those who watched was proud parent and keen amateur astronomer Leon Green, who turned up at Ravensworth Junior School at Normanby, Middlesbrough, with his powerful telescope to ensure pupils saw the event.

All 190 children at the school saw an image of the transit projected on to card.

Mr Green, whose daughter Melanie, is a pupil at the school, said: "We managed to get bits and pieces of the transit between the clouds. I think the view we got was pretty well as expected. Over the six hours it was happening, we only managed to get 45 minutes of actual viewing time."

In Middlesbrough, 500 people converged on the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum to view the event through a solar scope and glasses donated by NASA.

Curator Ian Stubbs said: "We were amazed at the numbers who turned up: everyone was flabbergasted."

Forty people also observed the transit from HM Bark Endeavour, the replica of Captain Cook's ship, which is in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

Captain James Cook became the first European to reach Australia and New Zealand when he was sent to the South Pacific to observe the transit of 1769.

HM Bark Endeavour sailed out of port at 5am yesterday, accompanied by Geoffrey Wilson, a lecturer from Whitby Astronomical Society.

Captain Chris Blake said: "It was hazy, but we were able to see the transit twice as it moved across the lower half of the sun."

At York Observatory, Chris Newton, Professor Charles Burton and students from York University's physics department helped youngsters see the event via the latest technology as it was beamed from the Internet on to a screen.

Mr Newton was dressed as Jeremiah Horrocks for the day.

In 1639, Horrocks was the first person to observe a transit through a telescope.