“Alongside this, ESA published images of the first eclipse created by Proba-3, revealing its view of the corona. This, they say, was the first artificial eclipse created in orbit. It should not be the last …”
Nor, was it the first. Fifty years ago this week, on July 19, 1975, the Apollo half of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) was used to block the Sun so the corona could be photographed from the Soyuz. It met with mixed results due to the sunlight being diffused by the Apollo’s reaction control thruster gases. Mention of this can actually be found on ESA’s own website.
Also worth mentioning, the crew of Apollo 12 were in a position to observe a solar eclipse while on their way back from the Moon. The Earth, itself, served as the sun-blocking body in that case. The date of that observation was November 21, 1969.
Thanks, that's some really interesting information. I was slightly skeptical of the ESA claim but I didn't know anything about the Apollo-Soyuz effort to create an eclipse before! The Apollo 12 one must have been incredible to see as well.
I actually didn't know about the ASTP experiment, either. It was the first search result that came up when I went looking for the Apollo 12 details, which is the one I had recalled.
Also new to me, as a result of reading the archived ASTP articles, is the fact that the two spacecraft undocked and then redocked to perform the eclipse experiment. The first - most famous - docking had the Apollo in the role of the active spacecraft. The redocking after the eclipse experiment had the Soyuz as the active spacecraft.
“Alongside this, ESA published images of the first eclipse created by Proba-3, revealing its view of the corona. This, they say, was the first artificial eclipse created in orbit. It should not be the last …”
Nor, was it the first. Fifty years ago this week, on July 19, 1975, the Apollo half of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) was used to block the Sun so the corona could be photographed from the Soyuz. It met with mixed results due to the sunlight being diffused by the Apollo’s reaction control thruster gases. Mention of this can actually be found on ESA’s own website.
Also worth mentioning, the crew of Apollo 12 were in a position to observe a solar eclipse while on their way back from the Moon. The Earth, itself, served as the sun-blocking body in that case. The date of that observation was November 21, 1969.
Thanks, that's some really interesting information. I was slightly skeptical of the ESA claim but I didn't know anything about the Apollo-Soyuz effort to create an eclipse before! The Apollo 12 one must have been incredible to see as well.
I actually didn't know about the ASTP experiment, either. It was the first search result that came up when I went looking for the Apollo 12 details, which is the one I had recalled.
Also new to me, as a result of reading the archived ASTP articles, is the fact that the two spacecraft undocked and then redocked to perform the eclipse experiment. The first - most famous - docking had the Apollo in the role of the active spacecraft. The redocking after the eclipse experiment had the Soyuz as the active spacecraft.