{"id":410624,"date":"2025-09-09T14:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410624\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T14:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:18:12","slug":"moon-blocks-satellite-views-of-sun-before-lunar-eclipse-photo-of-the-day-for-sept-9-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410624\/","title":{"rendered":"Moon blocks satellite views of sun before lunar eclipse photo of the day for Sept. 9, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

In early September 2025, skywatchers in parts of the Eastern Hemisphere were treated to a total lunar eclipse<\/a> as Earth <\/a>blocked the sun<\/a>‘s light from the moon<\/a>. The eclipse occurred in the evening of Sept. 7<\/a> as the moon slipped into shadow and transformed into the infamous “blood moon<\/a>” for a few minutes.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, satellites<\/a> orbiting Earth saw something very, very different.<\/p>\n

What is it?<\/p>\n

Two of the weather satellites launched by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA<\/a>) \u2014 Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES<\/a>) 18 and 19 (also known as<\/a> GOES West and GOES East) \u2014 witnessed not one but two eclipses<\/a> the evening of Sept. 7.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

These two satellites are part of NOAA’s larger mission to monitor Earth and space weather<\/a> and study changes in Earth’s environment <\/a>in high resolution. But while their eyes look Earthward, their gaze recently caught both a solar<\/a> and lunar eclipse.<\/a><\/p>\n

Where is it?<\/p>\n

According to NOAA<\/a>, the GOES-18 satellite is positioned above the “western contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America and the Pacific Ocean,” while the GOES-19 satellite is located to scan a wider swath of Earth, including<\/a> “North America, including the continental United States and Mexico, as well as Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast of Africa.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"An\n<\/p>\n

Here the moon begins to block the sun in a solar eclipse. (Image credit: NOAA\/ SSEC Geostationary Satellite)Why is it amazing?<\/p>\n

While skywatchers <\/a>on Earth saw a lunar eclipse, due to their positioning in space, both GOES satellites were treated to a solar eclipse and then the lunar eclipse, mere hours apart.<\/p>\n

A solar eclipse happens when the moon blocks the view of the sun on Earth while, in contrast, Earth blocks the sun’s light on the moon for a lunar eclipse.<\/p>\n

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n

\n

\"Solar\n<\/p>\n

An infographic showing the difference between a solar and lunar eclipse. (Image credit: Tomruen (Own work)\/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA)<\/p>\n

Given their locations above our planet, both GOES-18 and GOES-19 caught stunning details of the sun in high resolution before they were momentarily blocked by the moon in a solar eclipse. This eclipse happened from 4:40 a.m. to 5:28 a.m. EDT (0840 to 0928 GMT) for GOES-18, and 12:34 am to 1:22 a.m. EDT ( 0434 to 0522 GMT) for GOES-19. Videos of this solar eclipse can be seen on the CIMSS Satellite Blog. <\/a><\/p>\n

Hours later, the lunar eclipse happened at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) in the Eastern Hemisphere. Witnessing two eclipses in a single day is a rare celestial coincidence, a reminder that the universe<\/a> still has a few breathtaking surprises up its sleeve.<\/p>\n

Want to learn more?<\/p>\n

You can read more about the GOES satellites <\/a>and recent lunar eclipse. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In early September 2025, skywatchers in parts of the Eastern Hemisphere were treated to a total lunar eclipse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[70,413,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-410624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115174775603635811","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}