Transit of Venus, June 2012. The planet Venus (black dot) is seen moving across the face of the Sun, seen from Rocket Park at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA. At left is the silhouette of a rocket, a Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle. Transits of Venus are rare, occurring in pairs over 100 years apart. Ingress occurred at around 22:09 UTC on 5 June and egress occurred at around 04:49 UTC on 6 June. This was the second of a pair of transits, with the earlier transit occurring in 2004. The next pair of transits will occur in 2117 and 2125.