On August 21, a swatch of Earth residents will witness the rare side effect of our planet’s long dance with its oldest partner: a total solar eclipse, caused by the perfect alignment of the Moon in front of the sun.
A new visualization from NASA shows in extraordinary detail where the total eclipse will be visible; primarily along an approximately 112 km (70 mile) stretch, cutting across the United States diagonally from Oregon to South Carolina. This diagonal lies in the path of the umbra, the part of the Moon’s shadow where the sun is entirely blocked by the Moon.
The visualization shows that the umbra is shaped like an irregular, slightly curved polygon, rather than the circle you might expect. The same dips and bumps that shade faces and imaginary seas into the Moon’s surface also affect how light passes around it.
“With this new visualization, we can represent the umbral shadow with more accuracy by accounting for the influence of elevation at different points on Earth, as well as the way light rays stream through lunar valleys along the moon’s ragged edge,” said NASA visualizer Ernie Wright of Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
This new level of detail comes from pairing 3-D maps of the Moon’s surface, created by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, with elevation data for the places its shadow will hit.
[video=youtube;jxanWTR8-yM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxanWTR8-yM[/video]
Not the 21 Aug one. Tonight's one is visible from SA.any chance we will be able to see it in SA?
Not the 21 Aug one. Tonight's one is visible from SA.
Look at the OPthank you.. any idea what time... we like hanging outside to watch the eclipse, fun time for the family...
Pics or it did not happen
Here's my attempt
/snip...
No particular good reason tbh, was just better than the green and red ones. And btw, the moon is made of cheese anywayJust curious, why the filter?
No particular good reason tbh, was just better than the green and red ones. And btw, the moon is made of cheese anyway.
Here is one without the filter.
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With my 8inch Dobsonian, 25mm lens, yellow filter and cellphone camera.
More Here: https://www.universetoday.com/136702/gorgeous-images-august-2017-lunar-eclipse/Just to get you in the mood for the upcoming total solar eclipse — now less than two weeks away — our Solar System put on a little eclipse display of the lunar kind on August 7. The full Moon passed through part of the Earth’s umbral shadow, and the timing made this partial lunar eclipse visible in parts of Europe and Africa.
Thanks to our friends around the world who posted in Universe Today’s Flickr page, we’ve got images to share! Enjoy the views! Click on all the images to see larger versions of them on Flickr. The lead image link is here.
And for those of you in the path of the August 21 solar eclipse, please feel free to share your images on our Flickr page, and we may feature them in an upcoming article.
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