Presumably the images were taken on the way to perihelion. The orbit isn't circular, it's both highly eccentric and inclined relative to the ecliptic to get a v

Presumably the images were taken on the way to perihelion. The orbit isn't circular, it's both highly eccentric and inclined relative to the ecliptic to get a view of the solar poles. A plane change is really hard on delta-v, so they tilt the orbit up bit by bit with repeated Venusian gravity assists. In the main science phase of the mission there are 14 planned perihelion approaches. There's a diagram here, but at least some of the information there seems preliminary as they eventually launched with a black "Solar Black" heat shield coating rather than white titanium dioxide because the latter wasn't sufficiently UV-stable. https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/solar-orbiter-mission#solar-orbiter-mission https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/solar-orbiter-mi...