RXTE lightcurve of η Carinae (in the 2–10 keV energy range), from August 2008 to June 2009, corrected for instrumental background (from Corcoran et al. 2010, in prep.). The bottom axis gives the time in MJD, while the top axis gives the phase of η Car (based on the ephemeris from Corcoran 2005). The start of the minimum is close to the periastron passage from 2009 (Φ = 3). Red lines indicate the new INTEGRAL observations, obtained just after the X-ray minimum. Blue triangles are the N_H measured during the previous minimum (with their axis on the right side), as reported by Hamaguchi et al. (2007).