An interplanetary shock wave that was produced by a solar eruption and its associated coronal transient on May 8, 1979, has been 'tracked' through interplanetary space to a rendezvous 2 days later with Venus. The interaction of the shock wave with the ionospheric obstacle at Venus produced a significant compression of the dayside ionosphere. It is believed that the tracking, as it were, was accomplished for the first time via the diagnostic observations provided by H&agr; and white light imagery near the sun and the plasma and field measurements of two, nearly radially aligned, spacecraft.