On May 20-21, 2012 an annular eclipse of the Sun will be visible from
within a narrow corridor along Earth's northern Hemisphere -- beginning
in eastern Asia, crossing the North Pacific Ocean, and ending in the
western United States. A partial eclipse will be visible from a much
larger region covering East Asia, North Pacific, North America and
Greenland.
During an annular eclipse the moon does not block the entirety of the
sun, but leaves a bright ring of light visible at the edges. For the May
eclipse, the moon will be at the furthest distance from Earth that it
ever achieves – meaning that it will block the smallest possible portion
of the sun, and leave the largest possible bright ring around the
outside.
The joint JAXA/NASA Hinode mission will observe the eclipse and provide
images and movies that will be available on the NASA website at
http://www.nasa.gov/sunearth. Due to Hinode’s orbit around the Earth,
Hinode will actually observe 4 separate partial eclipses." Scientists
often use an eclipse to help calibrate the instruments on the telescope
by focusing in on the edge of the moon as it crosses the sun and
measuring how sharp it appears in the images. An added bonus: Hinode's
X-ray Telescope will be able to provide images of the peaks and valleys
of the lunar surface.
The orbits for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), NASA's Solar
Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), and the joint ESA/NASA
mission the Solar Heliospheric Observatory will not provide them with a
view of the eclipse.
The next solar eclipse will be the total solar eclipse on November 13, 2012.
More information on eclipses: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html
To find information about the time of any eclipse in your location: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/JSEX/JSEX-index.html
More eclipse info click here
