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A Transit of Venus occurs when Venus crosses between Earth and the Sun, appearing as a dark disc visible through a telescope. Since the 1600s, natural philosophers, astronomers and scientists have used the Transit of Venus to study our solar system, using these observations to measure its size and, more recently, further our understanding of exoplanet research.
Each Player will represent a century (17th, 18th, 19th and 21st) during which the transit occurred, working cooperatively and building off the achievements of your predecessors to prepare for and study the remarkable event.
As each Century scores points, they will advance their respective marker on the board. This represents scientific advancement as the people of that time period invent new technology, prepare observation points, and publish their results. Reaching certain spaces on the score track will earn you Milestones to commemorate these achievements, which will help you and your fellow players continue to advance.
Your opponent is time itself - each round, the Hourglass marker will also move, representing how much time it took each Century to achieve those accomplishments. If each Century cannot stay ahead of the Hourglass marker by the time the game ends, they will fail to successfully observe the transit.
We are now on the eve of the second transit of a pair, after which there will be no other till the twenty-first century of our era has dawned upon the earth, and the June flowers are blooming in 2004.
What will be the state of science when the next transit season arrives God only knows. Not even our children's children will live to take part in the astronomy of that day.
As for ourselves, we have to do with the present.