Earth Observations taken during an Annular Solar Eclipse

A CLOSER LOOK

ISS031-E-041635 (20 May 2012) --- Photographed by the Expedition 31 crew aboard the International Space Station and easily spotted at top center in this image is the gray shadow of the moon, cast on bright clouds of the northern Pacific Ocean, as the May 20 solar eclipse point tracked towards the Aleutian Islands and then on to northern California. The eclipse is seen obliquely so it appears as a flattened circle. The eclipse was visible for about 3.5 hours, and since the ISS orbits Earth every 90 minutes there was a chance that the ISS crew would see (if not the total eclipse by looking directly overhead), some evidence at least in the form of a partial eclipse. Only since the start of human spaceflight could such an image have been shot, looking back at the moon’s shadow projected agains

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