Path of the half shadow of the annular solar eclipse on 1/15/2010

Please view in full screen mode. Higher resolution and no Earth rotation. This animation (created with Redshift 7 Premium, Maris Technologies) shows the path of the half shadow of the upcoming annular solar eclipse on January 15 2010 (peak 7:22 UT) a bit closer. Timestep of the animation is 15 seconds. Date&Time is shown in the upper left corner in German. The back-steps in longitude and latitude against Earth rotation are necessary to follow the eclipse's path, though it appears a bit unnatural. At the beginning and end of the "touch down" and "lift off" of the half shadow one can see clearly how the CORE shadow of the eclipse (umbra) touches Earth surface. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is not in its perigee and eclipses the Sun in a way that a tiny ring of it is visible. The Moon isn't close to Earth to completely eclipse the Sun, so the Moon's small core shadow does not or just touch Earth for a very brief moment. its half shadow (penumbra) is very big though so a lot of Earth surface is covered by it for a long time. The red line marks Earth's equator. The green line marks its meridian (0° longitude through Greenwich, UK). The tiny blue line marks its rotational axis (north pole). Hit Pause to view the core shadow at the beginning and end of the animation. It's a very brief moment! Created with Redshift 7 Premium by Maris Technologies

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• astronomy
• astrology
• eclipse
• solar
• annular
• ecliptic
• Sun
• Earth
• Moon
• half
• shadow
• penumbra
• umbra
• visibility
• Sonnenfinsternis
• Halbschatten
• Kernschatten
• Astronomie
• Astrologie
• Mond
• Erde
• Sonne
• Mondknoten
• dragon
• tail
• head
• Lunar
• nodes