Image showing planets in lasco
LASCO image from May 2000 showing four planets, the Pleiades star cluster and a halo CME

The SOHO spacecraft follows the same orbit around the Sun as Earth does (with SOHO positioned at the first Lagrange point). A predictable orbit means that we can easily predict when planets planets, known comets, bright stars, and asteroids, will cross the SOHO/LASCO fields of view. The follow pages provide lists (and in many cases graphical representations) of the planet, bright comet, and bright asteroid transits we expect each year, along with their predicted brightness. We also provide a list of bright star transits; this list is the same for every year because SOHO returns to (more or less) the same point in space every year, just like Earth does.

Please note: The 2000 - 2014 lists pertain only to the SOHO/LASCO C3 camera, but 2015 onwards lists both C3 and C2. They do not correspond to transits of planets in the STEREO/SECCHI data. The STEREO spacecraft are in a very different orbit to SOHO, and are in a completely different part of the solar system, and so will not witness the below transits at the same time as SOHO does. For information regarding planets in STEREO data, we recommend the "Where is STEREO?" page, the "STEREO Orbit Tool", or the "STEREO Planet Finder" page.

These lists were compiled by Jonathan Shanklin, Douglas Biesecker, Sebastian Hoenig, Derek Hammer, Michal Kusiak, Michael Mattiazzo, Giuseppe Pappa, Worachate Boonplod and Karl Battams. The dates are all approximate.