PIA21929: SDO Saw Only a Partial Eclipse
 Target Name:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  SDO
 Instrument:  Atmosphere Imaging Assembly
 Product Size:  1744 x 1800 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  SDO
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA21929.tif (3.667 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA21929.jpg (185.9 kB)

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Original Caption Released with Image:

Millions of excited people in the U.S. traveled many miles see a total eclipse, and what a show it was. The SDO spacecraft was not so fortunate: its orbit only allowed it to observe a partial eclipse that at its peak covered only about 14 per cent of the sun (Aug. 21, 2017). Most of the people in the U.S. (weather permitting) observed at least 60 per cent coverage of the sun by the Moon. The good news for SDO is that it gets to see partial and solar eclipses several times a year. So, it all kind of balances out, in a way.

Movies
PIA21929_SDO_eclipse2017_big.mp4
PIA21929_SDO_eclipse2017_sm.mp4

SDO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Its Atmosphere Imaging Assembly was built by the Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), Palo Alto, California.

Image Credit:
NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory

Image Addition Date:
2017-08-23