• The planet Venus is nearly lost from view to us on Earth now, having plunged into the western sunset glare just days before crossing directly in front of the sun in a spectacular Venus transit - last one in this century - on June 5-6, 2012. You might see Venus in the sky, still, if you use binoculars, and Venus is near Mercury after sunset now. But the view from space is getting really exciting! The sun-observing SOHO spacecraft now has Venus (and Mercury) in the field of view of its LASCO C3 camera. In these images, the sun is at the center of the image, hidden behind an occulting disk. Venus is the brighter of two objects to the left of the sun. The fainter object next to Venus is Mercury. See the June 1 and June 2 images! You can tell Venus is edging toward the sun from SOHO's perspective - and ours on Earth.
• In 2012, Venus first entered the

SOHO spacecraft view on June 2, 2012. Sun is in center of field of view, hidden behind occulting disk. Venus is the brighter object to the left of the sun. Mercury is the fainter object to the sun's left. See the image insdie to understand the track of Venus from one side of the sun to the other in the coming days. Image Credit: NASA

field of view of SOHO's the LASCO C3 camera on June 1. The planet should pass behind the occulting disk between early June 4 and very late June 7, finally exiting the SOHO field of view late on June 11. As Venus gets closer to the sun, it should enter the narrower, LASCO C2 field of view somewhere near the middle of June 3, disappear behind occulting disk between early June 5 and reappear early June 7,

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