Eclipses | Universe Today

The recently launched Proba-2 satellite was able to observe the annular solar eclipse on January 15, 2010, with stunning results. The PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy satellite was launched on November 2, 2009 and is intended to test hardware and software that might be incorporated into future ESA missions. The eclipse offered a unique chance to test out the Sun-imaging instrument, SWAP (Sun Watcher using APS detectors and imaging processing). Another radiometer instrument was also able to take measurements during the eclipse.
Read more…

Filed under: Eclipses, Satellites | 1 Comment »

Caption: Annular solar eclipse on January 15, 2009. Courtesy Daniel Fischer, "cosmos4u" on Twitter.

The first of two solar eclipses to occur in 2010 took place Friday, January 15. This was an annular eclipse, which means the Sun was not totally covered by the Moon, creating a "ring of fire." The eclipse was visible from a 300-km-wide track that passed over central Africa, across the Indian Ocean, over the southern tip of India and the northern end of Sri Lanka, and then across parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar. At the center of the track, the eclipse endured for 11 minutes and eight seconds, setting a record that won't be beaten until December 23, 3043. Weather cooperated in many regions, allowing good viewing conditions. Here are a few images and videos from Daniel Fischer, who was in Varkala, India, and another group who calls themselves Eclipse Hunt 2010 crew were in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The image above is from Fischer, who said via Twitter that his travels to view the eclipse was a total success. "Deep blue sky, not a single cloud all day, photo plans worked."
Read more…

Filed under: Astrophotos, Eclipses | 1 Comment »

We couldn't see the eclipse from my house on Vancouver Island, but Santhosh Nandakumar was kind enough to send in this sequence of images of the eclipse from Coimbatore, TN, India.

Filed under: Eclipses | Comments Off

Happy New Year! Thanks to Nathanial Burton-Bradford for sharing his photo of the New Year's Eve Blue Moon Eclipse. "Very hazy high level clouds over Cornwall so not very clear, unfortunately," Nathanial wrote this morning. But beautifully breathtaking nonetheless!

Onward to 2010!

Filed under: Eclipses | 4 Comments »

Have you enjoyed our lunar studies together this year? We hope you’ve taken the time to follow the phases and to appreciate what you see. Although it would be wonderful to end our this year's time together viewing the distant cosmos, something very cool is about to happen… Read more…

Filed under: Astronomy, Eclipses, Moon | 4 Comments »

The total solar eclipse which just occurred on the 22nd of July 2009 was the longest maximum duration of the 21st century. Not since Saros 1991 have astronomers and eclipse chasers been treat to such an event! Totality lasted over six and a half minutes at maximum. duration. The event started in India along the western shore near Surat moved towards Butan and reached the southern tip of Nepal and the northern edge of Bangladesh.

For other lucky astronomers like Vietnamese student Dang Anh Tuan at Hanoi National University of Education, the eclipse path also took the event over cities like Chengdu, Suining, Chonging, Wuhan, Xiaogan, Hangzhou, and Shanghai – and event which yielded five minutes of totality. Leaving Shanghai the shadow path raced across the ocean, to fall across islands such as Toshima and Akusaki south of Japan and eventually the Marshall islands. Where was the longest point? The maximum eclipse duration of 6 minutes and 43 seconds occurs far off the coast in the Pacific Ocean! Are you ready to become an eclipse chaser? Then follow me… Read more…

Filed under: Astrophotos, Eclipses, Observing, Solar Astronomy | 1 Comment »

Want to know about the atmospheres of planets around other stars, and the stars themselves?

Start at home.

A pair of papers in this week's issue of Nature is advocating continued studies of both lunar eclipses, when the Moon transits Earth's shadow, and solar eclipses — when the Moon comes directly between Earth and the sun.

Read more…

Filed under: Astronomy, Eclipses | 4 Comments »

Here's something you don't see everyday. In fact, this is the first time this has ever been seen. On Feb. 10 Japan's Kaguya spacecraft in orbit around the moon successfully took an image of a penumbral lunar eclipse. That's the Earth passing in front of the sun, as seen from the Moon. From the Moon! The image was taken just at the moment when the Earth covered up most of the sun, creating a diamond ring effect. If we're lucky on Earth, we can see this effect in a solar eclipse, when the Moon blocks the Sun as seen from Earth. Here, Earth’s atmosphere is lit up by the sun, creating the ring and just enough sunlight is sneaking by on one side of the Earth, creating the diamond. Sensational! Plus, there's a movie of the eclipse, too!

Read more…

Filed under: Eclipses, Moon | 18 Comments »

An annular solar eclipse earlier today was visible in South-East Asia, southern Africa and Australia. Thanks to M.R. Taufik from Bontang, Indonesia for sharing this image of a complete ring or annulus of light from the sun peeking out from around the moon. Because the moon's orbit is elliptical, its distance from Earth–and its apparent size—varies. Annular eclipses happen when the moon looks too small to completely cover the sun. Such an event that occurs about 66 times a century.
Read more…

Filed under: Eclipses | 15 Comments »

If you read this week's SkyWatcher's Forecast, then you knew several areas of the world were in for a partial lunar eclipse event. While the Moon basically just did a glancing pass through the umbral shadow, the effect was still dramatic and I was hoping that at least one photographer out there would have a picture and story to share! Read more…

Filed under: Astrophotos, Eclipses | 4 Comments »

If you've ever wanted to see a solar eclipse, this might be the time to do it. It is a very rare chance to see an eclipse at totality because the Moon's shadow is so small and, more often than not, it falls on sparsely populated regions of the planet. Often eclipse hunters are resigned to planning expensive trips to these locations, sometimes only to be disappointed by poor weather. But there's an answer. This Friday's eclipse will swing over Canada, the tip of Greenland, parts of Russia, China and Mongolia, including the Gobi desert, although nothing can replace actually travelling to one of these locations to witness this celestial event, NASA will transmit the eclipse live over the Internet. Excellent, now we can do some eclipse-chasing without leaving our armchairs…
Read more…

Filed under: Astronomy, Eclipses | 12 Comments »

It's likely that sometime in your education career, an English teacher had you enjoy (or suffer through, depending on your tastes) at least part of that classic of classics, Homer's Odyssey. It tells the story of Odysseus, a Greek general, who embarks on a 10-year journey back home after battling in the fall of Troy. The tale is filled with imagery that is referenced often in contemporary films and books. As old as it is, one would think that we've learned pretty much all we can from the book, but a new analysis of celestial events referenced in the Odyssey reveals that Homer may have documented a total solar eclipse.

Read more…

Filed under: Eclipses | 24 Comments »

Something strange happens during a solar eclipse. As the Moon's shadow passes over the surface of the Earth, observers have noticed mysterious bands of shadow ripple ahead and behind the eclipse. It seemed possible that these bands were a result of constructive and destructive interference of sunlight around the limb of the Moon (an effect known as diffraction), or atmospheric turbulence may have had a part to play. However, a new theory has come to light. As the Moon's shadow travels across the Earth's surface, it may be possible that the shadow cools the atmosphere suddenly, creating a pressure difference. This gives rise to a sonic phenomenon: a shock front. This may refract the path of light from the lunar limb and through the atmosphere, creating the bands of light and dark. The solar eclipse may be a sonic phenomenon as well as an optical one…
Read more…

Filed under: Earth Observation, Eclipses | 8 Comments »

Like I said, you buried me with photos of last week's total lunar eclipse. So here's another batch. Thanks to everyone who went outside and remembered to bring a camera.

If you're a budding (or veteran) astrophotographer, I highly recommend you check out the Bad Astronomy/Universe Today forum. We have a section just for people to post their astrophotos.

This first photograph comes from Joe from Michigan State University with a digital camera and a 4" telescope.
Read more…

Filed under: Eclipses | 7 Comments »

I asked and you delivered. Here is just a fraction of the eclipse photos Universe Today readers sent in. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Up first, here's a mosaic of six images of the Moon captured by Thomas Jacobs using a 4.5" reflector from Woodstock, Georgia in the US. The photos were captured through a pretty heavy cloud cover.
Read more…

Filed under: Eclipses | 7 Comments »