03-09-2016, 03:58 AM
Yesterday I somehow got to wondering how a solar eclipse on the moon might appear as seen from the moon's surface (what we would call a lunar eclipse as seen from Earth. The moon passing through the Earth's shadow).
Found this from NASA giving a description of what a partial solar eclipse on the moon might look like: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sci...areclipse/
" You're standing on the Moon. It's broad daylight, almost high noon. The Sun is creeping slowly across the sky. How slowly? A lunar day is about 29.5 Earth-days long. So the Sun moves 29.5 times slower than our Earth-sense tells us it should. At that leisurely pace, the Sun approaches a dark but faintly-glowing disk three times its own size.
The disk is Earth with its nightside facing the Moon. You can see moonlit clouds floating over Earth's dark oceans and continents. You can also see a faintly glowing ring of light around the planet--that's Earth's atmosphere with sunlight trickling through it. A telescope would show you Earth's city lights, too. Beautiful.
Then the eclipse begins.
Looking through dark-filtered glasses, you watch the Sun slip behind Earth. Earth's atmosphere, lit from behind, glows red, then redder, a ring of fire the color of sunset, interrupted here and there by the tops of the highest clouds.
Ninety minutes later--patience is required!--only a little bit of the Sun remains poking out over the edge of the planet. Arranged just so, the pair remind you of a giant sparkling diamond ring.
The Sun never completely vanishes because this eclipse is partial, not total. During a total eclipse, Earth would hide the Sun completely, which has the odd effect of turning the Moon blood red. But that's another story. "
Found this from NASA giving a description of what a partial solar eclipse on the moon might look like: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sci...areclipse/
" You're standing on the Moon. It's broad daylight, almost high noon. The Sun is creeping slowly across the sky. How slowly? A lunar day is about 29.5 Earth-days long. So the Sun moves 29.5 times slower than our Earth-sense tells us it should. At that leisurely pace, the Sun approaches a dark but faintly-glowing disk three times its own size.
The disk is Earth with its nightside facing the Moon. You can see moonlit clouds floating over Earth's dark oceans and continents. You can also see a faintly glowing ring of light around the planet--that's Earth's atmosphere with sunlight trickling through it. A telescope would show you Earth's city lights, too. Beautiful.
Then the eclipse begins.
Looking through dark-filtered glasses, you watch the Sun slip behind Earth. Earth's atmosphere, lit from behind, glows red, then redder, a ring of fire the color of sunset, interrupted here and there by the tops of the highest clouds.
Ninety minutes later--patience is required!--only a little bit of the Sun remains poking out over the edge of the planet. Arranged just so, the pair remind you of a giant sparkling diamond ring.
The Sun never completely vanishes because this eclipse is partial, not total. During a total eclipse, Earth would hide the Sun completely, which has the odd effect of turning the Moon blood red. But that's another story. "