Watching the watchers

On June 8, 2004 an interesting astronomical event occured : the Transit of Venus. I am not going to trouble you with scientific details, because they could be found at many sites. NASA, for example. Thanks to the effort of mass media, who obviously could not find anything more important than the Venus transit, even incurious, lazy, and illiterate people knew about the event.

At the prescribed day and time many people gathered to watch the Morning Star. Amateurs and professionals watched through telescopes. Some people used pinhole cameras.

Workers watched through wielding goggles. IT personnel used floppy disks. Internet dwellers watched at home - through web cams. Housewifes watched it over TV - between soap operas.

Everybody watched it.

Let's leave Venus alone and look at the people.