During the night of 5 and 6 June the passage of Venus in front of the Sun was observed from several places on Earth.

The best experts on Venus, the ESA Venus Express Science team, were gathered in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean where they could enjoy a full view of this once in a lifetime show, thanks to the "midnight sun".

This video recalls this rare night of observation seen from Svalbard with interviews from the Venus Express team explaining what we've learnt about Venus.

- Hakan Svedhem, Venus Express Project Scientist, ESA (English)

- Wojciech Markiewicz, Venus Express Primary Investigator, Max Planck Institute for Solar System research (English)

- Jean-Loup Bertaux, Venus Express Primary Investigator, CNRS (English)

- Dimitrij Titov Venus Express Science Team, ESA (English)

- Thomas Widemann, Astronomer, Paris Observatory (French, English)

- Colin Wilson, Venus Express Science Team, ESA (English)

- Michel Breitfellner, Venus Express Operations, ESA (German)

It also includes images of the transit from ESA satellite PROBA 2 and a time lapse shot from Svalbard plus images of Venus from its onboard camera.'

More background information can be found on: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/index.html