The weather seemed to hold off to view a rare celestial event that will not happen again for more than a century.

It's called the transit of Venus, when the planet, Venus, moves in front of the sun.

Notre Dame was one of the public viewing sites, and lots of folks flocked there to watch the event through special telescopes and solar shades.

“We had to look through this little tube, and, well, it's pretty cool,” said 7 year old Taryn Turchi

“I've never seen it before but it's just so cool,” said Kai Gillespie who also came to Notre Dame to watch the show.

“People like to look up at the sky because it's not something they normally get to see. So when you have instruments like telescopes, it brings out a sense of exploration in people, and it's something they're not going to be able to ever see again,” said Notre Dame physics student Christopher Wotta

The transit of Venus is what scientists used to measure the size of our solar system, and astronomers today use the transit method to find planets around distant stars.