The Moon passing between XRT and the Sun! Click the image to watch the movie of the eclipse or
click here to watch the youtube version
Ring of Fire in the Sky
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On October 14th, 2023, the residents of the South Western United States and parts of Central and South America were treated to an annular solar eclipse. Solar eclipses occur when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth at just the right time. Total eclipses and annular eclipses differ by the Moon-Earth distance at the time of the eclipse. The Moon has an ovular orbit around the Earth. This orbit causes the Moon to be slightly further away from the Earth or slightly closer than average depending on which part of the orbit the Moon is in. For annular eclipses, the Moon is slightly further away from the Earth, making the Moon look smaller in the sky and not fully covering the Sun. This produces a ring-looking Sun from the ground, illustrated here. Not only did the US, Central America, and South America get an eclipse on the ground, Hinode XRT had the opportunity to observe from orbit. Hinode orbits the Earth quickly giving the team multiple opportunities to capture the partial eclipse via these predictions. In the video, XRT captures two opportunities with the first being larger coverage. The video is made of composite Al-poly filter images, a short exposure layered over a long exposure, which allows us to see dark coronal background and bright flare loops at the same time. We, the XRT team, are always excited to record eclipses when they happen for science, our archive, and for their beauty. Keywords: Eclipse, Full Disk Filters: Al-Poly |
(Prepared by Rhiannon Fleming and Aki Takeda)
The XRT instrument team is comprised of SAO, NASA, JAXA, and NAOJ.
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