--- title: Solar Eclipse Views From International Space Station: Photo description: Here's what astronauts saw from the International Space Station during the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 canonical: https://time.com/4908949/total-solar-eclipse-space-view/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-21T21:41:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:33.746Z article:section: Science og:title: This Is How the Solar Eclipse Looked From Space og:description: Here's what astronauts saw from the International Space Station og:url: https://time.com/4908949/total-solar-eclipse-space-view/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37270204d841ff1a/6988da8d0b72e387bd6ef1a1/nasa-eclipse.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The moon's shadow over the United States from space is seen from the International Space Station from outer space og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is How the Solar Eclipse Looked From Space twitter:description: Here's what astronauts saw from the International Space Station twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37270204d841ff1a/6988da8d0b72e387bd6ef1a1/nasa-eclipse.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is How the Solar Eclipse Looked From Space by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Aug 21, 2017 9:41 PM UTC  The umbra, the moon's shadow, over the United States from space is seen from the International Space Station from outer space on Aug. 21, 2017 The umbra, the moon's shadow, over the United States from space is seen from the International Space Station from outer space on Aug. 21, 2017NASA/Reuters by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Aug 21, 2017 9:41 PM UTC As viewers gathered to watch the [total solar eclipse](http://time.com/4909098/last-total-solar-eclipse-of-the-sun/) cross the sky in the U.S. on Monday, the astronauts on the [International Space Station](http://time.com/4909418/total-solar-eclipse-international-space-station-video/) had multiple opportunities to see the moon cover the sun from space. Crew members on Expedition 52 had their cameras outfitted with special filters to allow them to photograph the solar eclipse aboard the station. Because the station orbits the earth every 90 minutes, the astronauts saw partial views of the eclipse three different times, with different levels of coverage each time. They were unable to see a [total view of the eclipse](http://time.com/4843775/total-solar-eclipse-2017-facts/) because the station did not pass through the moon’s umbra, [according to NASA](https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/iss-observations). The crew on the International Space Station is made up of [six astronauts:](http://time.com/4908629/total-solar-eclipse-international-space-station/) NASA’s Peggy Whitson, Jack Fischer and Randy Bresnik, Russia’s Fyodor Yurchikhin and Sergey Ryazanskiy and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli. Check out the photo below to see what the moon’s shadow over the U.S. looks like from space:  The umbra, the moon's shadow, over the United States from space is seen from the International Space Station from outer space on Aug. 21, 2017 NASA/Reuters ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4908949/total-solar-eclipse-space-view/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4908949/total-solar-eclipse-space-view/"},"headline":"This Is How the Solar Eclipse Looked From Space","datePublished":"2017-08-21T21:41:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:33.746Z","description":"Here's what astronauts saw from the International Space Station","url":"https://time.com/4908949/total-solar-eclipse-space-view/","keywords":["Eclipse","onetime","space 2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37270204d841ff1a/6988da8d0b72e387bd6ef1a1/nasa-eclipse.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37270204d841ff1a/6988da8d0b72e387bd6ef1a1/nasa-eclipse.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The moon's shadow over the United States from space is seen from the International Space Station from outer space","caption":"The moon's shadow over the United States from space is seen from the International Space Station from outer space","creditText":"NASA/Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/eclipse/","name":"Eclipse"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4908949/total-solar-eclipse-space-view/","name":"This Is How the Solar Eclipse Looked From Space"}}]}] ```