Sunday, March 3, 2013

Spring 2013 Eclipse Season has Begun

March 2, 2013 saw the first eclipse of the SDO Spring 2013 Eclipse Season. It was a partial eclipse, blocking only the upper left part of the Sun. Here are images from two AIA channels showing the eclipse at around 0715 UTC yesterday. The 193 image on the left shows the highly structured corona with the Earth passing by. The right shows the 1600 bandpass a few minutes later. The 1600 image has a much more uniform flow on the surface of the Sun and a much sharper (though still a little fuzzy) edge of the Earth. There is also a crescent of darkness over the top of the Sun that is not related to the eclipse.

The 2013 Eclipse Season continues until March 26. This season also has a lunar transit on March 11, from 1135-1243 UTC, a momentum management burn at 1901 UTC on March 13, and a station keeping burn at 2339 UTC on March 20.

Looks like March is going to be a busy month!