Lunar transit of the sun

Solar Eclipse, STEREO Style — On Feb. 25, 2007 there was a transit of the Moon across the face of the Sun - but it could not be seen from Earth. This sight was visible only from the STEREO-B spacecraft in its orbit about the sun, trailing behind the Earth.

Not your ordinary view of an eclipse. In a report on the Science@NASA website Lika Guhathakurta, STEREO Program Scientist at NASA headquarters says "What an extraordinary view. The fantastically-colored star is our own sun as STEREO sees it in four wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light. The black disk is the Moon. We caught a lunar transit of the sun." she explains.

See the spectacular images and read the story on the NASA website...

NASA
March 12, 2007

Stereo Eclipse

When scientists announce they're about to calibrate their instruments, science writers normally put away their pens. It's hard to write a good story about calibration. This may be the exception:

On Feb. 25, 2007, NASA scientists were calibrating some cameras aboard the STEREO-B spacecraft and they pointed the instruments at the sun. Here is what they saw:

Read the report and watch the video of the eclipse! Read more...