ESA Proba-2 views hybrid Solar eclipse - Video

Three partial solar eclipses are seen in this movie from ESA's Proba-2 Sun-watching satellite as it dipped in and out of the Moon's shadow during yesterday's 'hybrid' solar eclipse.

A hybrid eclipse comprises a total solar eclipse and an 'annular eclipse', depending on an observer's viewing location on Earth.

During a total solar eclipse, the Moon moves in front of the Sun as seen from Earth, their alignment and separation such that the much closer Moon appears large enough to block out the light from the much more distant Sun.

But from some locations, the apparent size of the Moon is slightly smaller than that of the Sun, leaving a bright ring around the dark disc of the Moon.

Meanwhile, from its vantage point in Earth orbit, Proba-2 saw several partial eclipses.

Proba-2 orbits Earth about 14.5 times per day, dipping in and out of the Moon's shadow around the time of a solar eclipse.

The video was produced from images taken by Proba-2's SWAP imager, which snaps the Sun in ultraviolet light.

Stormy active regions on the Sun's face are revealed, including sunspots, the roots of some large solar flares and 'coronal mass ejections' that are occasionally directed towards Earth.

NASA Mars Curiosity: MastCam Image of Phobos moon taking a bite out of the Sun

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity's Mastcam captures the eclipse on Sol 37 (September 13, 2012). 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

People often go to exotic locations to try and get the perfect view of a solar eclipse, but the Curiosity rover on Mars only had to look up to see an eclipse of a different kind.

Careful planning by the mission engineers ensured that the NASA rover had its cameras ready to capture the transit of Mars’s moon Phobos across the face of the Sun.

The partial eclipse occurred on September 13 (Sol (Martian day) 37 of Curiosity's time on the planet) and it took around 15 minutes for Phobos to graze the edge of the Sun.

The NASA Mars Rover Curiosity's MastCam camera is capable of filtering out some sunlight, meaning that it can safely look at the Sun.

Curiosity took more photos of the Mars' two moons crossing the face of the Sun on September 17.

Unlike a total solar eclipse on Earth, the moon Phobos is not large enough to completely block out the Sun’s disc.

Phobos is an irregular shaped moon measuring 27 by 22 by 18 kilometres, so it will only disrupt a portion of the Sun’s light.

In contrast, our Moon is 3,480 kilometres across, is 400 times smaller than the Sun and 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun, meaning that on Earth we can occasionally see a total solar eclipse.

Earth is the only planet in the solar system where a total solar eclipse can occur.

Mars’ moon Deimos is even smaller than Phobos, measuring 15 by 12 by 11 kilometres, and has a higher altitude, meaning that it will blot out far less of the Sun than Phobos when it transits the face of the disc.

Phobos has previously been caught in the act of eclipsing the Sun by the Opportunity rover in December 2010.

Opportunity’s twin, Spirit, also witnessed Phobos fade from the night sky as it passed within Mars’ shadow, in the equivalent of a lunar eclipse.

Phobos orbits Mars at a very low altitude of 9,400 kilometres, so it needs to travel fast in order to stop it from spiralling down towards the red planet.

This high speed means that it orbits Mars three times for every one rotation of the planet.

Solar Eclipse: Lucky Skywatchers in New Zealand

James Tse snapped this stunning photo of the partial solar eclipse on Nov. 25, 2011 from New Zealand.

CREDIT: James Tse

A few lucky skywatchers in New Zealand were treated to a partial solar eclipse that darkened the sky over parts of the southern hemisphere.

Last Friday, the moon passed between Earth and the sun, creating a partial solar eclipse for the fourth and final time this year.

The eclipse was only visible from certain locations in the southern hemisphere, including pockets of southern South Africa, across the Antarctic continent, Tasmania and parts of New Zealand.

At greatest eclipse, the moon covered 90.5 percent of the sun's diameter from the point closest to the axis of Earth's shadow, which is a location in the Bellingshausen Sea on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula, according to NASA scientists.

So, while majority of the planet could not see this partial solar eclipse, a few fortunate skywatchers in New Zealand captured some amazing photos of the event. [See photos of the partial solar eclipse]

YouTube - Partial eclipse of the Sun seen by Proba-2

Astronomers gathered among the stone-carved heads of Easter Island on Sunday to witness a total eclipse of the Sun. Meanwhile, 720 km away in space, ESA’s Proba-2 was focused on the same target.

The microsatellite’s orbit fell outside the path of totality, so only a partial eclipse was seen – but it was still a valuable scientific opportunity.

This eclipse was actually Proba-2’s second. The first occurred on 15 January, while it was being commissioned. This time around, the satellite, equipped with a quartet of scientific instruments focused on the Sun and space weather, was fully operational.

APOD: Midnight Solar Eclipse

On June 1, the shadow of the New Moon was cast across a land of the midnight Sun in this year's second partial solar eclipse.

This picture of the geocentric celestial event above the Arctic Circle was taken near midnight from northern Finland's Kaunispää Hill in Lapland. Of course the region's reindeer were able to watch as both Moon and Sun hugged the northern horizon just above a cloud bank.

Also visible from parts of Alaska and Canada, the eclipse began at sunrise in Siberia and northern China at 19:25 UT, ending about 3.5 hours later north of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean.

Remarkably, just one lunation later, on July 1 the New Moon's shadow will again reach out and touch the Earth in a partial solar eclipse, limited in visibility to a relatively small area in the Antarctic Ocean. July's eclipse will be followed by the fourth and final partial solar eclipse of 2011 on November 25.

That eclipse will be seen from a southern land of the midnight Sun.

A Solar Eclipse over the Marshall Islands

A photo montage captured during a solar eclipse over the Marshall Islands in July 2009. The beautiful image shows the solar corona that makes up the sun's atmosphere in amazing detail as the sun passes behind the moon.



The whorls and loops of the corona extend millions of miles into space, are nearly 200 times hotter than the visible surface of the sun, and yet aren't nearly as bright and hence can only be seen during eclipses

Solar eclipse in China

A solar eclipse that reduced the sun to a blazing ring surrounding a sombre disk plunged millions of people in Africa and Asia into an eerie semi-darkness.

The spectacle, visible in a 185-mile band running 8,062 miles across the globe, set a record for the longest annular eclipse that will remain unbeaten for more than a thousand years.

An annular eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly in front of the sun but does not completely obscure it, thus leaving a ring - an annulus - of sunlight flaring around the lunar disk

Picture: Reuters