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Space station astronaut sees solar eclipse shadow on Earth

The moon's shadow looks almost ominous when seen from the International Space Station during the Aug. 21 solar eclipse.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser
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The ISS astronauts had a great view of the moon's shadow.

Paolo Nespoli

The view of a solar eclipse from space can be very different than what we see down here on Earth. Italian Space Agency and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli snapped a series of photos of the moon casting its shadow on the planet from his vantage point on board the International Space Station. Nespoli tweeted the images on Monday.

Two of the photos show the view with parts of the space station in the frame. A dark blotch appears near the curve of the Earth where the moon cast its umbra. The shadow looks huge from this perspective. People standing in that umbra would be seeing the solar eclipse as it happened. 

Nespoli wrote, "Voila! The # Eclipse2017 shadow from @Space_Station, no words needed." 

The world's space agencies have been busy documenting the eclipse. Earlier Monday, a NASA photographer captured a gorgeous photo of the ISS transiting the sun as the moon took a bite out of the star's bright face.

The International Space Station Twitter account later shared another series of photos showing what the six astronauts in orbit witnessed during the event:

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