May 20 eclipse times?

Originally posted by -W1LL

Originally posted by haven123
reply to post by jiggerj

 

If Solar Eclipse happens when moon is closer to earth and hence can at least cover some area with complete darkness is Total Eclipse. However, when moon is quite distant and can't create complete darkness is Annular Solar Eclipse.

In Total Solar Eclipse, the sun is not at all visible, however, in Annular Solar Eclipse, sun is visible on complete circumference on moon.

As an analogous example: Suppose your friend (sun) is standing at a distance and observing your TV (earth). The more close you (moon) standing to your TV, more you can hide him from your friends view.

strange because the moon is actually very close to earth right now. it is moving away from its max perigee for this year.

No.

It is true that we just had the 'super moon' two weeks ago, and at that time the full moon was in perigee (in its closest orbital distance to Earth) on the night side of the Earth, and thus it looked large...

However, the eclipse happens on the DAY side of the Earth. On the day side, the Moon is currently near apogee -- or near its furthest orbital distance from Earth (when one side is in perigee, the other is in apogee).

Therefore, the Moon appears smaller than the Sun -- which is called an annular solar eclipse.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Let me clarify my above post, because the way I worded it may be misconstrued...

When I said "day side" and night side" of the Earth, what I meant was that the Moon is two weeks further along in it's monthly orbit that it was when we had the super moon (the full moon at perigee). Now, two weeks later, the Moon is half-way around the Earth in its orbit, and it is now near apogee.

When I said "day time" and "night time", what I meant was that, by definition, the new Moon phase we are in now would be high in the daytime sky, and the Full moon phase we were in then would be high in the nighttime sky. There was obviously a "daytime" om Earth during the moon's perigee two weeks ago, but my point was the the full moon back then was high in the night sky, and not as visible in the midday or afternoon sky.