The recent Solar Eclipse visible from Asia got me thinking about the Lunar Eclipse that my lovely wife took photos of from our backyard a few years ago.
Lunar Eclipses (Earth in between the Sun and the Moon) are easier to see because the Earth's shadow is large and the moon is small.
Solar Eclipses (Moon in between the Sun and the Earth) are rarely seen because the moon's shadow is small and the Earth is big.
(click on picture for a good explanation of lunar eclipses; photo from that site)
People always get things mixed up about these eclipses. I recently read a news report about the solar eclipse that contained the statement: "The eclipse started with the moon's shadow creeping across the face of the sun." Well now - you can't actually cast a shadow on the Sun can you?
The 27-Oct-2004 Lunar eclipse from the Riddy backyard
8:49 PM
9:11 PM
9:11 PM
9:31 PM
11:16 PM
11:34 PM
Notice the time lag of the moon being eclipsed - it is in shadow much longer than it take to become eclipsed. Why it that? It doesn't show well here but the moon actually looks red at the beginning and ending of the total eclipse portion. Why is that?
(I will give my answers in the first comment)
The Earth's shadow is bigger than the moon so the moon has to travel all the way through the entire shadow before it comes out again.
ReplyDeleteThe Moon looked red because the last light to hit the surface of the Moon before the total eclipse was from the Sunsets happening on Earth. As the moon reemerged it is red because of the Sunrises happening on the other side of the planet. (red light is the least scattered color as light travels through the atmosphere of the Earth)
WHO took the photos from the backyard, HMMMM????
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