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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Solar eclipse from Orion

Solar eclipse from Orion
Solar eclipse from Orion Captured by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, this image shows the Moon fully eclipsing the Sun. From the crew’s perspective, the Moon appeared large enough to completely block the Sun for nearly 54 minutes of totality, extending the eclipse far beyond what we experience on Earth. The corona forms a glowing halo around the dark lunar disk, revealing details of the Sun’s outer atmosphere typically hidden by its brightness. Also visible are stars, typically too faint to see when imaging the Moon. The faint glow on the left side of the Moon is Earthlight — sunlight reflected off our planet. NASA

While in the darkest part of the Moon's shadow, the crew described what they were seeing. 

Victor Glover said, "There are stars… An unreal view… The moon in the foreground is one of the darkest things we see out the window. And now, deep space behind it is kind of dark blue, like it looks from Earth, but we can also still see stars. It’s quite a wicked view."

Commander Reid Wiseman added, "It’s just indescribable. No matter how long we look at this, our brains are not processing this image in front of us. It is absolutely spectacular, surreal. There’s no… there’s no adjectives. I’m going to need to invent some new ones to describe what we are looking at out this window."