A Ridiculous Question - But I'd Like To Know and Learn More

So I really haven't taken the time to learn the theories or the math that would be involved in figuring this out, but I thought that ATS will definitely have folks who are more versed and up to speed on this sort of conjecture.
I'm not looking to debate if it is actually possible or not, etc, but more to a particular question about what would happen if it did occur.

During a Solar eclipse we have the umbra and the penumbra shadows.
The umbra is what is affected directly below the center of the moon and this is the "total eclipse". It gets fairly dark in these areas where this occurs.
The penumbra is the shadowy area that stretches around the perimeter of the pathway of the umbra and is darker than normal daylight.

My question is:
If the moon somehow "decided" to speed up velocity and also have the freedom to move in any direction, could it continue to follow the path of the sun in such a precise way as to cause a permanent solar eclipse?
Would this cause the sun to never really "shine" fully onto the earth's surface or would the also constant penumbra give enough light to just make it appear perennially overcast?

a reply to: EmmanuelGoldstein

A total eclipse of the sun is not exactly large. It never cover much of the earth. Taking your post literally, if there was freedom of movement, the moon would have to move really close to the earth to cause a lot more darkness, and the cataclysmic effect this might have on the earth would probably be a lot more destructive than the perennial darkness.

a reply to: vintagegeek

Thanks vintagegeek. This is about what I expected.
I'm working on a story and wanted to explore this possibility.

So, all in all, if the moon followed the sun but did not get any closer to the earth, then it wouldn't be "life changing"?

a reply to: vintagegeek
If it moves further away the shadow gets larger but more light 'spills' round the edges?

You sound like me, always researching for a story. You're not by any chance doing camp NaNo, are you? ..and it would be pretty life-changing, if it were possible. You'd have Dark Spots on the earth, unusable for much. It would be inconvenient if properly placed. It'd be a great place to exile people to.

a reply to: Billie828

Interesting, I wasn't thinking of having the moon create a stationary area of darkness. I was wondering if it could put the entire world in perpetual darkness except for the penumbra that creates a kind of twilight setting.

Doesn't look likely as vintagegeek pointed out, the only way to get that kind of all encompassing darkness would be to move the moon closer, and that would cause total destruction. I'm not looking for that angle so I think this theory might not be a good one to work with. Unless... I change the way the laws of common sense physics work, and I'm not going to do that either.

Never heard of camp NaNo, I'll check it out.

The only way for a moon to do as you suggest (keep the Earth in darkness) is it would need to orbit the Earth in the exact same amount of time that it takes the Earth to orbit the sun (around 365 days), AND, it would have ended up between the Earth and Sun, AND it would need to be very large to completely engulf the Earth in shadow.

So, no, it won't work with the actual Moon we have now. There would also be the problem of that 365 day orbit around the Earth. I believe it would have to be much further than the Earth's gravitation well (which is about 1.5 million miles).

Have to check the math though.

originally posted by: eriktheawful
The only way for a moon to do as you suggest (keep the Earth in darkness) is it would need to orbit the Earth in the exact same amount of time that it takes the Earth to orbit the sun (around 365 days), AND, it would have ended up between the Earth and Sun, AND it would need to be very large to completely engulf the Earth in shadow.

So, no, it won't work with the actual Moon we have now. There would also be the problem of that 365 day orbit around the Earth. I believe it would have to be much further than the Earth's gravitation well (which is about 1.5 million miles).

Have to check the math though.

Thanks!