Venus in Transit June 2012

When Venus passed in front of the sun on June 5, 2012 I had a chance to view the start of the transit briefly after 3 p.m. Later, when I was home there was a large dark cloud looming over our neighborhood and even though the entire transit would last 6 hours and 40 minutes, I thought for sure I'd miss the watching the remaining path of Venus before the sun set so I hopped in the car and drove a little ways to the neighborhood nearby to get some photos.

Unlike eclipses, Venus transits are truly rare. They come in pairs, separated by more than 100 years. The last one occurred in 2004 and next pair in 2117 and 2125.

Since this celestial event will not occur for over another 100+ years, I really wanted to witness it transpire before my very eyes. Then when I came home (the second time), the cloud overhead had cleared so that John and I could walk down the golf course behind where we live and watch the sun set with Venus in the foreground.