These mind-bending photos from Artemis II show what a solar eclipse looks like from the dark side of the moon

Traveling around the dark side of the moon means experiencing a solar eclipse not visible from Earth – and that’s the view that four astronauts were treated to on Monday, April 6, during the historic Artemis II spaceflight. Now, the crew has begun sharing some of those images, including photographs that show what a solar eclipse looks like from space.

The crew aboard the Orion space capsule experienced about 54 minutes of totality along the Artemis II flightpath around the dark side of the moon. That left far more time to take photos of the eclipse than the typical few minutes of totality during the solar eclipses that can be viewed from Earth. Now, NASA has begun sharing photos of what those four astronauts saw out of Orion’s windows.

This image, shot by the Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera with a 35mm lens, shows a wide view of the eclipse, showing the sun’s corona creating a halo around the moon. Covering up the sun also makes the stars pop in the image – which are often too faint to see when imaging the moon, NASA says.

On the left side of the moon, there’s enough light to see some details of the craters on the Moon’s surface. NASA explains this light is actually sunlight reflected off the Earth, hitting the moon, showing glimpses of the near side of the moon that can be seen from Earth.

Getting in a little closer, this shot taken with the Nikon D5 and 80-400mm lens – the same camera-lens combo that just recreated the iconic 1968 Earthrise photo with a 2026 Earthset image – shows not just the eclipse, but Jupiter in the distance. Like in the shot from the Z9, reflected light from Earth offers some slight illumination to the Moon’s surface details.

Finally, NASA also shared a shot of the sun beginning to peek around the Moon as the crew’s 54 minutes of totality began to close.

Just like on Earth, the humans aboard Orion wore protective eclipse glasses to safely view the eclipse. And, in a true reflection of modern times, the crew took a selfie in those glasses with the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

While Artemis II may have a lot of high-end tech, these glasses are the same cardboard glasses NASA made for viewing the 2023 eclipse on Earth. NASA says that this was the first time eclipse glasses have been used to view a solar eclipse from space, adding another first in the long list of historic Aretmis II accomplishments, including the furthest humans have ever traveled into space.

The astronauts were only able to view a solar eclipse by traveling to the dark side of the moon – the next time humans will be able to see a solar eclipse from Earth is on August 12, 2026, when parts of Europe, including sections of Russia, Greenland, Iceland, Portugal and Spain, will be in the path of totality. It’s the first time a total solar eclipse will be visible from mainland Europe since 1999.

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