Solar eclipse from space

We saw a rare event that strikes fear in the stems of all plants. Today the sun went dark, at least for some selected locations on Earth. Gardner said that the Moon’s shadow cast on the Earth looks just like the drawings in astronomy textbooks; amazing how early astronomers could figure all this out without ever having an orbital view. For us plants on orbit, it was not so scary since we remained sunlit. However, we did see this dark shadow cast on Earth and if you were a plant within that dark spot, a visceral reaction of fear would move through your vascular bundles.

Annular eclipse from space; the shadow cast by the Moon looks just like it does in the astronomy textbooks.
Annular eclipse from space; the shadow cast by the Moon looks just like it does in the astronomy textbooks.
Map view showing the location of space station (white dot), its orbit track (blue line; next three orbits red lines), visual horizon (purple circle), and the eclipse shadow (pink dot) during the encounter east of Kamchatka.
Map view showing the location of space station (white dot), its orbit track (blue line; next three orbits red lines), visual horizon (purple circle), and the eclipse shadow (pink dot) during the encounter east of Kamchatka.
One of Gardner’s friends is an amateur astronomer and took this picture of the annular eclipse from Muleshoe, Texas (photo by Joe Dellinger).
One of Gardner’s friends is an amateur astronomer and took this picture of the annular eclipse from Muleshoe, Texas (photo by Joe Dellinger).