THE NAMBUCCA Valley will be one of the best spots in the world to catch the once in a lifetime Transit of Venus phenomenon on June 6.
The planet of Venus rarely crosses between the sun and the Earth and the next transit will not occur for another 106 years.
Eastern Australia will be one of the few places in the world to see the whole six-hour journey across the sun between 8.30am and 2.30pm.
The Transit of Venus was first recorded in 1639, but it was the chance to witness it again in 1776 that led Captain Cook on his southern journey to Tahiti and ultimately to discover Australia.
"Venus will look like a black dot as it moves across the lower half of the sun, but no one should look directly at it," Craig Roberts from the University of NSW School of Surveying & Spatial Information Systems said.
"Schools across NSW have won solarscopes, donated by the Institution of Surveyors NSW, to safely view and time the transit just like Captain Cook did all those years ago.
"They will learn how that timing is used to compute the distance from the sun to the Earth."
"The Transit of Venus was a major scientific event in the 18th century and we're still doing large scale scientific observations using geospatial technology to exactly measure things like sea level rises, tectonic plate shifts and hopefully even earthquake predictions.
"We really want country schools to encourage their students to take an interest in the Transit of Venus as it touches on subjects like space, maths, science, geography, engineering and of course surveying.
"We have a skills shortage in the surveying and geospatial profession, but there are lots of jobs out there for graduates especially in regional industries like mining and agriculture."
