Yes, there WILL be a momentous astronomical event in the year 2012!

But it won't be the end of the world, since we had another one like it
in 2004. And in 1882, for that matter.

I just happened to run across this in a web search about the composer
John Philip Sousa - who composed not just a march entitled "Transit of
Venus", but who actually wrote a novel of the same name - although the
novel was just some bagatelle about New York society, the march was
about the astronomical occurrence, in honor of the unveiling of a
statue to the scientist Joseph Henry who had passed away some time
before.

John Savard