The transit of Venus as seen from space by Hinode/SOT

The five images on this page show the beginning of the transit of Venus across the Sun, as seen from space by the Japanese satellite Hinode. Images were captured with the SOT instrument during five minutes, between 22:26 and 22:31 UTC on Tuesday, June 5, 2012. SOT (Solar Optical Telescope) is a 0.5 meter Gregorian optical telescope with an angular resolution of about 0.2 arcsec over the field of view of about 400 × 400 arc seconds.

Credit: JAXA/ISAS

Hinode records the Moon transiting the Sun on May 20

Spectacular images from the Hinode spacecraft show the solar eclipse, which darkened the sky in parts of the Western United States and Southeast Asia on May 20, 2012.

The solar eclipse of May 20, observed by Japanese satellite Hinode through its X-ray telescope. Credit: JAXA / Hinode

An annular solar eclipse seen from space

The joint Japanese-American Hinode satellite, whose purpose is to study the magnetic fields and energy mechanisms of the Sun, captured this breathtaking image of an annular solar eclipse on Jan. 4, 2011. An annular eclipse occurs when the moon, slightly more distant from Earth than on average, moves directly between Earth and the sun, thus appearing slightly smaller to observers’ eyes; the effect is a bright ring, or annulus of sunlight, around the silhouette of the moon.

Here and below: photos of an annular solar eclipse taken by the solar optical telescope Hinode as the moon came between it and the sun. Credit: Hinode/XRT