Momentum Management Maneuver #27 Today, Joint Solar Eclipse Tomorrow

Today at 1857 UTC (2:57 p.m. ET) SDO will do MM #27. Science mode will stop at 1847 UTC and resume at 1917 UTC (3:17 p.m. ET). Science data may be blurry or absent during that time.

Tomorrow morning between 0715 and 0731 UTC (3:15-3:31 a.m. ET), SDO will see a lunar transit as SDO exits an Earth eclipse. Parts of Africa will observe an annular solar eclipse at the same time. While these double eclipses were rare early in the SDO mission, two have happened in the last year. The SDO flight dynamics team cannot yet tell whether we will see another one next year. Even though the Sun and Moon loom large in our images, they are actually quite small and SDO's view may have the Moon outside of the Sun next September.
Enjoy the 2016 SDO Joint Solar Eclipse!