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SDO's View of the Aug. 21, 2017, Solar Eclipse

Reports and Proceedings

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

SDO's View of the Aug. 21, 2017, Solar Eclipse

video: 

While many in the US experienced a total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, SDO's perspective, observing the Sun from Earth orbit, afforded it a view of a partial eclipse.

This movie, created from images taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows the Sun first in visible light, and then in 171-angstrom extreme ultraviolet light. The apparent slight movement of the Sun is because SDO has a hard time keeping the Sun centered in its images during eclipses, with so much light being blocked by the Moon. The fine guidance systems on SDO's instruments need to see the whole Sun in order keep the images centered from one exposure to the next.

Once the transit was over, the fine guidance systems started back up, once again providing steady images of the Sun.

Download in HD formats from: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12688 view more 

Credit: NASA/SDO


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