Lunar Transit Last Night!

Yesterday, from 6:00--8:33 pm, the Moon moved between SDO and the Sun. These lunar transits happen a few times each year. Here is the FOT movie of the event, produced last year. The transit covered a maximum of 57% of the Sun.

And here is a 60-hour movie in AIA 171 Å. There are three eclipses of the Sun by the Earth near 0700 UTC on February 22, 23, and 24. The lunar transit starts at 2300 UTC on February 23 and lasts until 0133 UTC on the 24th.

Lunar transits are one interesting feature of life in a geosynchronous orbit.

Station Keeping Maneuver #20 Today

SDO will execute Station Keeping Maneuver #20 today at 2230 UTC (5:30 p.m. ET). From 2200 to 2250 UTC (5:00-5:50 p.m. ET) science data may be missing or blurred. Station-keeping maneuvers are designed to keep SDO’s orbit in the right place when the spacecraft travels through the geostationary belt twice each day.

Happy Anniversary SDO!

Ten years ago, 11 Feb 2010, SDO rose majestically into the Florida skies. Since that day we have taken and recorded over 350 million images of the Sun.

Here's the image closest to the launch time, a lovely 211 Å image showing a large coronal hole over the South Pole and a smaller one over the north. Pretty typical solar minimum portrait!

Over the next year, Solar Cycle 25 will become more and more apparent. SDO will be there, observing the Sun and its magnetic field.

Congratulations to the SDO teams and all the people who enjoy our data!