The team at NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) announced the spacecraft is expected to witness the 2012 transit of Venus.  Taking the highest resolution images ever of the sun, the SDO will capture the sun during a transit in unprecedented detail, provided that its regularly scheduled station keeping maneuvers go as planned in the interim.  A video animation shows the anticipated alignment of the spacecraft, Venus, and the sun.  Note the small black dot representing Venus as it scoots in the foreground across the top of the sun on June 5-6, 2012.



During the 2004 transit of Venus, the planet passed just below the sun, as seen from the SOHO spacecraft.  The TRACE and GONG spacecraft, however, were successful in recording the celestial event from space.

Emilie Drobnes, SDO Education and Public Outreach Lead, writes, "This animation assumes that SDO performs regular SK maneuvers in the Spring/Fall of 2011 and Spring 2012, but unlike Lunar Transits, the distances involved for this transit make the SDO orbit a secondary effect.  Venus should miss all of the GT diodes, so we should be able to stay in ACS Science mode for the entire transit."