LUNAR ECLIPSE! On June 4th, the full Moon will pass through the shadow of Earth, producing a partial lunar eclipse visible across the Pacific side of Earth. The zone of visibility stretches from Asia to North America. In the United States, the event is visible during the hours before sunrise on Monday morning. Get the full story and a video from Science@NASA.

VENUS PASSES MERCURY, APPROACHES THE SUN: Venus is approaching the sun in advance of the June 5th Transit of Venus. From here on Earth, the second planet has become difficult to see wrapped in bright sunlight. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, however, has no such trouble. SOHO's onboard coronagrah blocks the glare to reveal planets otherwise invisible:

A 24-hour movie shows that Mercury is exiting stage left as Venus plunges deeper into sunlight. Updated images may be found here.

ISS TRANSIT OF VENUS: High above Earth, astronaut Don Pettit is about to become the first human to witness and photograph a transit of Venus from space. His images and commentary will be streamed to Earth during the crossing. [full story] [video]

VENUS SIGHTINGS: Venus is approaching the sun for an historic transit on June 5th and 6th. Sky watchers accustomed to seeing the Goddess of Love shining brightly in the evening sky are having to look harder than usual as Venus plunges into the glare:

ASTEROID SIGHTING: In an age of CCD cameras and high-speed digital recorders, University of Colorado Prof. Richard Keen has done something unusual. He observed an asteroid flyby with nothing but optics and the human eye. On May 29th, newly-discovered asteroid 2012 KT42 passed closer to Earth than a geosynchronous satellite. "Bent over the eyepiece of my 12-inch telescope, I tracked the little space rock for 42 minutes," says Keen. "Along the way it brightened from magnitude 11.5 to 10.5, about a whole magnitude brighter than predicted. Aside from some meteorites I've held in my hands and other meteors flashing though the upper atmosphere, this is the closest astronomical object I've ever seen. According to the NASA ephemeris, 2012 KT42 was just 19158 km from my house when I last saw it--about the same as a plane flight to Australia."

CANVAS FOR A TRANSIT: In only 6 days, Venus will pass in front of the sun, marking the solar disk like the tip of a black-dipped paint brush drawn slowly across the stellar surface. If the transit is indeed like a painting, here is the canvas:

CME TARGETS MERCURY, STEREO-A: A dense coronal mass ejection (CME) that left the sun during the late hours of May 26th will deliver a glancing blow to Mercury later today and a direct hit to NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft on May 28th. Earth is not in the line of fire. [CME forecast track]

LIMB SHOTS: The sun's southeastern limb is hopping with activity. New sunspot AR1492, which just rotated onto the Earthside of the sun, is crackling with C-class solar flares and hurling plumes of plasma off the stellar surface. Click on the image to set the scene in motion:

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the movie during the late hours of May 25th. According to the 3D Sun app, another active region is approaching just behind this one and could boost solar activity even more when it emerges in the days ahead. Stay tuned.

more images: from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany