An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three celestial objects is known as a syzygy. Apart from syzygy, the term eclipse is also used when a spacecraft reaches a position where it can observe two celestial bodies so aligned. An eclipse is the result of either an occultation (completely hidden) or a transit (partially hidden).
The term eclipse is most often used to describe either a solar eclipse, when the Moon's shadow crosses the Earth's surface, or a lunar eclipse, when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. However, it can also refer to such events beyond the Earth–Moon system: for example, a planet moving into the shadow cast by one of its moons, a moon passing into the shadow cast by its host planet, or a moon passing into the shadow of another moon. A binary star system can also produce eclipses if the plane of the orbit of its constituent stars intersects the observer's position.
For the special cases of solar and lunar eclipses, these only happen during an "eclipse season", the two times of each year when the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun crosses with the plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth when that line of intersecting planes points near the Sun. The type of solar eclipse that happens during each season (whether total, annular, hybrid, or partial) depends on apparent sizes of the Sun and Moon. If the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, and the Moon's orbit around the Earth were both in the same plane with each other, then eclipses would happen each and every month. There would be a lunar eclipse at every full moon, and a solar eclipse at every new moon. And if both orbits were perfectly circular, then each solar eclipse would be the same type every month. It is because of the non-planar and non-circular differences that eclipses are not a common event. Lunar eclipses can be viewed from the entire nightside half of the Earth. But solar eclipses, particularly total eclipses occurring at any one particular point on the Earth's surface, are very rare events that can be many decades apart.
I got myself some glasses for the upcoming solar eclipse, but they are very dark! They work fine for looking at the Sun in all its glory, but I suspect I won't ne able to see anything of interest during the eclipse.
Does anyone have experience filtering out the harmful UV while still being...
Is the difference in the eclipses of a Saros cycle (i.e., other than the longitude) due to the fact that a Saros cycle is exactly 223 synodic months but 241.999 draconic months and 238.992 anomalistic months, with the 0.001 & 0.008 month differences causing the slight differences in the eclipses...
The upcoming conjunction of Jupiter & Saturn has got me thinking. I wonder if it has ever been observed (and hopefully photographed) of one planet's disc even partially taking over another's. I have seen a photo of Saturn doing this with the Moon, but I don't think I've ever seen one of a pair...
Hypothetical: Approximately how far from Earth would a star the size of the sun have to be for an object the size of a quantum particle to cause a total eclipse of that star when orbiting the Earth at a distance equal to that of Earth to the center fro the moon?
This might be total nonsense, but the thought popped into my head while I was trying to get to sleep, so I thought I see if I could find any advanced help with the following hypothetical:
If light were instantaneous, how far from Earth would the sun have to be to cause a quark orbiting in place...
Is the reason you can make out the shape of the sun and the moon is because the gaps between the leaves cause the light to be photons instead of waves?
There will be a solar eclipse on 26th December that can be viewed from my city. In addition to buying safety glasses, I also want to prepare my camera, if possible.
The camera is a Panasonic FZ-70. I have a UV protector and four ND filters - 2, 4, 8, 16. I am also buying a circular polarizer...
There is the famous experiment of measuring the "movement" of a star close to the sun during an eclipse. The stars position is determined before the disc of the sun moves just under it and than the position is again measured when the sun moves just "under" the star. The star will have appeared...
From my understanding, for an observer to see a total solar eclipse, 1) the Moon's orbit has to be near aligned with the Earth's Orbit, 2)such that the New moon's Umbra falls on Earth, and 3) the observer must be within this cast umbra. But for a partial solar eclipse, since the Penumbra of the...
I see that South America (Chile/Argentina) will be getting a total solar eclipse this winter (i.e., winter there) and then another one only 17 months later that seems to be along the same type of path, albeit a little bit south. This can't be very common...
Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, might be eclipsed by an asteroid in a few days:
https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/will-sirius-disappear/
Can a 7-kilometer-wide asteroid make Sirius disappear? You bet it can. That just might happen on Monday night, February 18th. That evening...
(For reference, I am around coordinates ( +30 , -90 ), and this is the January 2019 lunar eclipse.)
I am typing this at supposedly mid-eclipse, and yet I see a thin crescent of white (ash?) along one side. It seems that the Moon should be well within the umbra at this point.
Anyone else watching the lunar eclipse tonight? It starts at about 9:30PM EST, with totality at 11:41. It's cold and windy in PA, but at least it's mostly clear. Here's a couple of pre-eclipse photos:
Dear All Concerns
Black Hole is formed at the end of life of a big star. The mass of such star should be equal to 5-10 solar masses. But I am imaging very small moving black hole coming to our solar system and passing between our Earth planet and the sun thereby creating solar eclipse of unique...
It seems that a partial solar eclipse is one in which the eclipse circle never completely rises, and it essentially is only a sunrise or sunset eclipse, with the point at which it goes from sunrise to sunset being that location in the polar region where the eclipse is at "high noon" but which it...
Can total lunar eclipse and partial lunar eclipse be happened at the same time?
So, do we call it partial lunar eclipse when the total lunar eclipse happen just before?
Did the 2017 eclipse prove Einstein was right or the jury is still out? I can't find any references to the new measurements and what they proved (or did not).
I observed the eclipse from Washington DC area yesterday. I have a few questions.
from the eclipse map and youtube clips ppl uploaded, the eclipse starts in Oregon and sweep across states.
questions:
1. I know Earth rotate around itself from west towards east every 24 hrs, is this the main...
Why didn't the Earth get dark? Apparently, even in a total eclipse the moon doesn't block out the total circumference of the sun. Is it a matter of geometry?
Hi there,
I've watched this video: . I have been curious the whole day why the eclipse path seems to be curved and obviously in our latitude. Is it because of both the moon's orbital plane and the tilt of the Earth's axis? If it went across the US, that is a lot more than 5 degrees (moon...
Hello MHB Community! :D
As I'm sure most of you who live in the U.S. are aware, we will be witness to a solar eclipse on the 21st of August and the path of totality will cut across the continental U.S.:
I live in NE Florida, and will experience almost 90% obscurity, but I have family in TN...
How long does it take for the temperature on Earth to cool down after the sun has set? I want to know if the total solar eclipse will change the temperature.
I am from Michigan, I read about the August 2017 eclipse and it's not passing through my home state. I was wondering, is there any formula or even just general common sense that will say if their will ever be a Eclipse in Michigan? I don't care if it's a solar OR lunar eclipse. Will there be an...
I think I may be heading to Makanda Illinois, on August 21, for the Eclipse. (Where I live in Michigan, it will only be about 80% - I want the full effect...) In all likelihood, considering my age, and how mobile I may be by the next time there is a full eclipse in the US, I have decided I...
Dear group,
I am using Eclipse in the Ubuntu operation system and trying to print out this data from the begin to the string "END OF HEADER" but I do not understand why it did not give me the one as I expected.
I also used this file "albe0320_1.17n" to test and it worked, but the file that I...
during solar eclipse , moon's shadow on Earth is almost a point [267 km which is a 0.00000523 % of Earth's surface area] which means that sun light must bend, if it is not bending then we would never get a point shadow of moon on earth. now the question arises why sun light bends, is it a...
I've been waiting for this for a long time and it's just a little more than a year away now. This will be the opportunity of a lifetime for people in the U.S. The 2017 solar eclipse will be visible across the width of the entire U.S! The points of Greatest Eclipse and Greatest Duration are...
Dear all,
I have been reading through this article about how often different types of eclipse (eclipse cycles) can occur. I'm presuming that all fictional eclipses have to be variations of these? Even with a fictional planet/moon/solar system?
But what if the desired recurrence of an eclipse...
Below is the link to the Lunar super eclipse Sept. 27th. It won't happen again until 2033.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/theres-rare-supermoon-total-lunar-205421688.html?amp;soc_trk=ma&soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma
Hi, Just wondering: The lunar orbit around the Earth is tilted 5.1 degree with respect to the Earth's orbit around the sun (as described in the video), so only at 2 times during the year the Earth is aligned with the sun such that lunar eclipses can happen IF the moon is behind the Earth...
I was wondering whether there is an actual scientific point of taking ground-based photographs of the Solar corona during total eclipses on Earth. It seems to attract a lot of attention from well equipped amateurs around the world and the pictures of the fine plasma structure surely look great...
Just to let everyone know here in the UK we are waiting expectantly for the Solar Eclipse tomorrow morning - max at around 9.30am.
98% coverage in the north of Scotland and the Orkneys, Hebrides and Shetland islands, 85% down here in the south.
The totality shadow crosses from the North...
If solar eclipse occurs at 12h 12m 12s actually. Then at what time one will see it on earth. Will the speed of light affect the time if moon starts covering sun at 12 h 12 m 12s when one will see covering on earth? at what time? I just want to know I am just curious do you think the time taken...
Homework Statement
Assume two stars are in circular orbit around a mutual center of mass and are separated by d = a. Assume angle of inclination is i and stellar radii are r1 and r2. Find an expression for the smallest angle of inclination that will just barely produce an eclipse.
Homework...
Hello, thank you for reading my post.
For a story I am working on I am wondering about the plausibility of some star and planet configurations. I have done some web research on my own and learned a lot, but for some things I think my vocabulary and knowledge is too limited to search for exactly...
I saw it yesterday. I live in the Pacific Northwest, which was clouded over. But at about 2:45 - 3:00 PM PDT, at local maximum eclipse, there was a break in the lower clouds, and I could see the Sun through the upper clouds. It was rather fuzzy-looking, but I could see a bite out of it from the...
hi guys and gals
a total lunar eclipse will be visible for all Pacific and parts of it for most of USA parts of South America, Central Asia
cheers
Dave
First discovery of double star that brightens during eclipse
Einstein's general theory of relativity explains the phenomenon
by Dr. Ken Croswell
For the first time, astronomers have seen a double star brighten rather than fade when one star passes in front of its companion. Predicted...
Homework Statement
Find the radii of the umbra and penumbra circles drawn drawn perpendicular to the EMS axis, formed at a distance equal to that of the moon from the Earth.
Homework Equations
(From: http://www.opticiansfriend.com/articles/equations.html#Shadows)
D2 / L1 = (P + U) /...