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Vitaliy Egorov • Nov 05, 2013

The solar eclipse in Africa seen from space

This post was originally published at Egorov's blog and is reposted here with his permission.

On Sunday, the shadow of the Moon passed across Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. This was the last solar eclipse of the year. The Elektro-L satellite was able to observe the eclipse, and we can see the darkness of the lunar shadow covering Africa.

Electro-L is located in a geostationary orbit and takes photos of Earth every 30 minutes from the same vantage point. So we have a unique pattern that is not seen even from the International Space Station.

The November 3, 2013 solar eclipse in Africa seen from Elektro-L
The November 3, 2013 solar eclipse in Africa seen from Elektro-L On November 3, 2013, the Russian geostationary satellite Elektro-L saw the Moon's shadow on the ground in west Africa.Image: Roscosmos / Vitaliy Egorov
The November 3, 2013 solar eclipse in Africa seen from space (animation)
The November 3, 2013 solar eclipse in Africa seen from space (animation) On November 3, 2013, the Russian geostationary weather satellite Elektro-L witnessed the lunar shadow crossing Africa.Image: Roscosmos / Vitaliy Egorov

The last solar eclipse was in May, 2013, over Australia. Elektro-L was also able to photograph it. Moreover, at our request, Roscosmos changed the mode of operation of the satellite, increasing the frequency of imaging by a factor of two. This allowed us to better see the passage of the Moon's shadow on the mainland.

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