It will be 105 years before Venus again passes directly between Earth and the sun, and some scientists are choosing Alaska as the place to witness the last-in-a-lifetime astronomical event on June 6. Alaska and Hawaii are the only two U.S. states that will have a view of the entire seven-hour transit, reports Space.com. Coincidentally, there's a meeting of solar physicists in Anchorage the week after the Venus transit, so some of them are coming early.

[NASA scientist Dean] Pesnell and his colleagues plan to watch the transit from Fairbanks, and they're going to use the rare event as an education and outreach opportunity.

"We're working with some amateur astronomers up there to set up a family science-oriented event in the city of Fairbanks," Pesnell told SPACE.com, adding that the team will bring 10 to 20 different displays to teach people about the sun and SDO. "It's been a fairly popular thing to take to cities."

What if it's cloudy in Alaska on June 6? No worries: NASA is webcasting the Venus transit via a sun-observing spacecraft.