![]() The shadow covering the sun is called an umbra. That means those of us on Earth see a big, round shadow (the moon) sliding over and covering the sunlight we normally see in the daytime sky. If everything lines up just right, the sun is fully or partially covered by the moon. At night, the moon is totally dark during a new moon. A solar eclipse can only happen during a new moon, a phase of the lunar cycle where the moon lies between Earth and the sun. Solar Eclipse A solar eclipse happens when the moon, on its journey around Earth, happens to pass between the sun and Earth for a moment. Every now and then, one of these objects moves into the shadow of another one. Moons constantly spin around each planet. All the planets constantly move at different speeds around the sun. Read Dave Dickinson’s eclipse-fueled sci-fi tales Exeligmos, Shadowfall, The Syzygy Gambit and Peak Season.There's a lot of movement going on in our solar system. Yeah, we got spoiled with four back-to-back lunar eclipses during the Blood Moon tetrad of 2014-2015… And the next total lunar eclipse? The dry spell is broken on January 31 st, 2018, when a total lunar eclipse favoring the Pacific Rim occurs. The relative ecliptic angle also ensures that moonrise only slides back by a slight amount each evening for observers in mid-northern latitudes around the Harvest Moon.Ĭan’t wait til the next eclipse? Well, 2017 has four of ’em: an annular on February 26th favoring South America, two lunars (another penumbral on February 11 th and a partial on August 7 th) and oh yeah, there’s a total solar eclipse crossing the United States on August 21st. This year, the Harvest Moon falls just six days from the equinox on September 22 nd, marking the start of astronomical Fall in the northern hemisphere and Spring in the southern. The September Full Moon is the Harvest Moon, providing a few extra hours of illumination to get the crops in. This last occurred in 2013, and will happen again in 2020.Īnd when there’s a lunar eclipse, there’s also a Full Moon. Three eclipses (a lunar partial and a penumbral, or two penumbrals and one solar) can occur in one eclipse season, if the nodes of the Moon’s orbit where it intersects the ecliptic fall just right. When is an eclipse… not an eclipse? By some accounts, the Moon underwent a very shallow penumbral one cycle ago on August 18 th, 2016, though the brush past the shadow was so slight that many lists, including the NASA’s GSFC eclipse page omitted it. See anything… shady going on? Here’s the penumbral lunar eclipse from this past March. ![]() We’ve yet to see a good convincing time-lapse documenting a penumbral eclipse, though such a feat is certainly possible. Such a high-flying Moon during mid-eclipse favors the Indian Subcontinent this time around. You’ll want to photograph the Moon when its high in the sky and free of atmospheric distortion low to the horizon, which tends to discolor the Moon. Photographing the Moon before, during and after a penumbral eclipse will often bring out the subtle shading on post-comparison. If you didn’t know any better, could you tell the difference from one night to the next? Often, the camera can see what the eye can’t. Check out the waxing gibbous Moon the night before the eclipse, then the Moon the night of the event. Why penumbrals? Aren’t they the ultimate non-event when it comes to eclipses? Like with much of observational astronomy, a penumbral lunar eclipse pushes our skills as a visual athlete to the limit. ![]() Viewers in Australia, New Zealand and Japan will see the eclipse transpire at moonset, and the eclipse will get underway at moonrise for observers in western Africa and Europe. The entirety of the eclipse will be visible from the region surrounding the Indian Ocean on the evening of Friday, September 6 th. ![]() The visibility map for next week’s eclipse. Though not the grandest show as eclipses go, astute observers should notice a subtle light tea-colored shading of the Full Moon, and perhaps the ragged dark edge of the umbra on the northwestern limb of the Moon as it brushes by around mid-eclipse. this sort of eclipse occurs when the Moon just misses the dark inner core (umbra) of the Earth’s shadow, and instead, drifts through its relatively bright outer cone, known as the penumbra. We’re talking about the penumbral lunar eclipse coming up next week on September 16 th, 2016. The path of next week’s penumbral eclipse through the Earth’s shadow. This not only marked the start of the second and final eclipse season for 2016, but it also set us up for the final eclipse of the year next week. Hey, how ’bout that annular eclipse last week? Some great images flooded in to Universe Today, as the final solar eclipse for 2016 graced the African continent.
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