Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Who Is This Guy?: Use Skygazer or Starcal To Find Out!
Who Is This Guy?: Use Skygazer or Starcal To Find Out!
Sunrise/Sunset,
Winter Solstice
Ecliptic Plane
Spring Equinox
Celestial Equator
Fall Equinox
Fall Solstice
D. Constellations?
The patterns of stars in the sky would not change muchbut their
position with respect to celestial north would be different).
homework#2
The Moon
Facts about the Moon
We see the moon changes its
appearances and position in
the sky with approximately
30-day cycle.
Unlike the stars, Moon can
also be seen during the day.
We also see that the Moon is
always involved in eclipses,
and
Its position seems to be well
correlated with the tide of the
ocean.
Understanding the motion of
the Moon with respect to the
Sun and the Earth will explain
these phenomena.
Solar Eclipses
The solar corona is
revealed during a total
solar eclipse
The corona is about one
millionth times fainter
than the disk of the Sun.
Similar to observing stars
next to the Sun, the light
from the disk must be
blocked (by the moon, or
by special occulter in the
telescope) before we can
see the solar corona.
Lunar eclipses
Lunar eclipses happens
when the Moon passes
through the shadow of the
Earth
Everybody on the night side
of Earth can see the lunar
eclipse.
Solar eclipses
Solar eclipses occur when
the shadow of the Moon
falls on the surface of
Earth
Only people in the shadow
can see the eclipse.
Eclipse Path
When total or ring solar eclipse happens
The diameter of the umbra of lunar shadow is no more than
270 kmyou can see the total eclipse only if you are in a very
narrow and long eclipse path.
In the 1990 total eclipse that passed through the big island of Hawaii,
people on Maui and Oahu cannot see the total eclipse!
Sun
Moon
You see the partial Sun if
you are in the penumbra
You see the whole Sun
outside of the shadow
Ring Eclipse
Ring eclipse happens when the Moon does not
completely block the Sun, like partial eclipses
Sun
Moon
You see the partial Sun if
you are in the penumbra
You see the whole Sun if you are
outside of the shadow
Eclipses: Summary
Solar eclipse happens when the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun.
The size and distance of the Moon need to be just right for us to see total
eclipse.
The changing distance between the Earth and the Moon explains the
occurrences of the total and ring solar eclipses.
The changing distance between the Earth and the Sun, and the Earth and the
Moon explains the difference in the duration of the solar eclipses.
Lunar eclipse happens when Earth is between the Moon and the Sun.