The Bad Astronomer has posted his top 10 astronomy photos of 2007.
My favorite is his pick for number 2, even if it is actually a video. It shows a solar eclipse taken from a space-based solar satellite. A total solar eclipse, you may know, is when the moon passes in front of the sun completely obscuring its disc, and casts a dark shadow on the earth. It’s an astounding event in which, for a few minutes, the sky grows dark, the temperature drops, and a fire-ringed hole appears in the sky right where the sun used to be. I’ve seen two solar eclipses in my life: one in Mexico 1991 and one near Guadeloupe in 1998.
Total solar eclipse are also quite rare — at least on any given point on earth. There’s no more than one per year and many appear over the ocean, the earth’s surface being mostly water, you know. So how rare? Well, the continental United States hasn’t had a total solar eclipse since 1979 and won’t experience another one until the total eclipse of August 2017.
Note that the “Bad Astronomer” is not to be confused with my dad, who is actually a very good astronomer as well as solar eclipse chaser.
Now where was I? Oh yes, this amazing new video is taken of a solar eclipse from a space-based satellite. Ordinarily, the apparent size of the sun and moon are nearly exactly the same size, an amazing coincidence (or divine plan, depending on your perspective) and is what makes solar eclipses possible. But from space, the apparent size of the moon is much smaller.
So, for the first time, we have a video of Earth’s moon passing in front of a much larger sun. Like I said, amazing:
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