Space station crew captures image of moon’s shadow during solar eclipse

Whereas hundreds of thousands of individuals regarded skyward at Monday’s complete photo voltaic eclipse on Monday, a handful of earthlings took in a a lot totally different view of the uncommon phenomenon — from the Worldwide Area Station.

Because the station orbited above southeastern Canada, flight engineers Matthews Dominick and Jeanette Epps managed to {photograph} and videotape the moon’s shadow on Earth about 260 miles under them, NASA stated on Monday.

The Expedition 71 crew had the prospect to view the moon’s shadow on Earth, or umbra, after spending the day finishing cargo transfers, spacesuit upkeep and microgravity analysis, NASA stated. The home windows on the outpost’s cupola — often called its “window to the world” — had been open, permitting the astronauts to seize the cool pictures.

The Worldwide Area Station skilled about 90% totality throughout its flyover, and NASA posted a video of the occasion on social media:

Greater than 31 million folks stay within the path of totality, the realm the place the moon totally blocked out the solar, in accordance with NASA. The trail ranged between 108 and 122 miles vast. A further 150 million folks stay inside 200 miles of the trail of totality.

Earlier than hovering into the moon’s shadow through the eclipse, the house station crew carried out quite a lot of different duties on Monday — together with orbital plumbing, fixing a pair of science freezers and air flow upkeep.

The gorgeous picture of the moon’s shadow got here simply days after NASA launched pictures that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured of Korea Aerospace Analysis Institute’s Danuri lunar orbiter throughout a flyby in March.

The 2 spacecraft, touring in almost parallel orbits, zipped previous one another in reverse instructions, and the LRO operations staff “wanted beautiful timing in pointing LROC to the suitable place on the proper time to catch a glimpse of Danuri.”

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling the moon for 15 years, captured a number of pictures — which resemble a cosmic surfboard zooming via house — throughout three orbits whereas it was shut sufficient to Danuri to seize snapshots.