The Evolution of Solar Eclipse Photography in Photos

Views from Space

Hinode/XRT

Satellites and other spacecraft that have a view of the sun can also return some amazing images of solar eclipses as seen from space. The Japanese Hinode spacecraft captured this stunning image of an annular solar eclipse on May 20, 2012, which darkened the sky in parts of the Western United States and Southeast Asia.

What's Next?

Bob Baer/Sarah Kovac/Citizen CATE Experiment

Eclipse photography has come a long way from sketches to daguerrotypes and high-resolution digital images. Now it's easier than ever to photograph solar eclipses. Whether you own a telescope or only have a camera phone, you too can take some seriously amazing photos of this incredible astronomical event. And if you do capture any cool eclipse photos and would like to share them with Space.com, please email your images with comments to spacephotos@space.com. [How to Film or Photograph the 2017 Solar Eclipse Like a Pro]

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Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.