White to move and mate in two #791 - The annular solar eclipse of Feb 17

There was an annular solar eclipse on Feb 17, which did not generate much news or many images, since it was visible only in the Antarctic region.

But the ESA Proba-2 satellite was in perfect positions 725 km high to snap a few pictures. In fact it had 4 different opportunities from 10:00 to 14:30 UTC as it circled earth every 99 minutes.

Images were taken by the spacecraft's SWAP extreme ultraviolet imager, at a wavelength of 17.4 nm.

In this pic, ~93% of the solar disk is occulted by the Moon.

proba2.sidc.be/...

ESA's Proba-2 is a small, low-cost, technology demonstration satellite launched in 2009. Proba-2 contains 5 scientific instruments. Two of them are designated to observe the Sun

The satellite orbits around Earth in a Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit.

• Altitude: 725 km
• Period: ~99 minutes.
• Size: 0.6 × 0.6 × 0.8 m
• Weight: ~130 kg

www.esa.int/...

Now, let’s zoom into today’s puzzle composed in 1900 by noted British chess composer Godfrey Heathcote (1870 - 1952).

P.S.

The chess puzzle is published on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. ET.

It is customary for advanced players to wait till midnight ET before posting the full solution. Before then, they provide some stats about the solution (e.g., the minimum number of distinct checkmate moves), help guide others, and sometimes post hints. But there are no hard-and-fast rules; feel free to post comments as you please.

Online Board

Solution (shows first move only)

Full Solution