NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured footage of a stunning partial eclipse from space on Wednesday, June 29th. The transit began at approximately 05:20 BST and lasted for around 35 minutes. At its peak, the Moon covered 67% of the Sun’s fiery surface. Wondering what the bumps and ridges on the Moon are as it passes in front of the Sun? The Leibnitz and Doerfel mountain ranges.
How do we know that those bumps and ridges are mountain ranges? Well, it’s all because of the work of Patricio Leon from Santiago, Chile. This amateur astronomer examined close-up photographs of the Moon moving across the Sun and compared them to a topography map compiled by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Just for the record, this eclipse has nothing to do with this custom PlayStation 2 Portable, called the ‘Eclipse’.
- High quality 127mm (5") Maksutov-Cassegrain
- Quick-release fork arm mount, optical tube and accessory tray for quick tool no set up
- StarPointer finderscope to help with alignment and accurately locating objects
SDO observations start in the interior of the Sun with the solar dynamo — the churning of the Sun’s interior that creates its magnetic field and drives space weather. Further out, SDO observes the solar surface to directly measure the magnetic field and the solar atmosphere to understand how magnetic energy is linked to the interior and converted to space weather-causing events,” according to NASA.
