by MarkBour » Thu Oct 09, 2014 5:16 pm
Boomer12k wrote:... and remembered, HEY...tonight was the eclipse. (nearly forgot!)... Turned, and there it was
...
Nice, Boomer, you got some great shots! So you can't say that your area is *always* cloudy when the fun happens! (But it can sure be a problem in the Pacific Northwest USA, if that's where you are.) Anyway, glad you got a good view of this one
I thought it was interesting to watch the movement of the shadow over the face of the Moon. Earlier in history, when people didn't have this all figured out, if they at least knew it was Earth's shadow as it came between the Sun and Moon, then as one stands there on a point on the surface of the Earth, the Moon appears to be setting, moving down to the horizon, so one would most simply imagine the shadow of Earth coming in from the bottom and moving up to cover the Moon, but that's not what happens. The shadow progresses in the other direction.
On the other hand, if you think of the light source, the Sun, and it was coming up over the other horizon, and if you thought of it as a race, and had made the measurements that the Sun goes around the Earth faster than the Moon, then you'd get the correct conclusion, that the shadow must move in the "forward" direction. I guess that's right, in a way, but it seems a misguided way to think about it when one has the more complete Copernican model of things to work from.
Still, I think the motion of the shadow is an interesting clue to the puzzle as man considered it back in antiquity. I am pretty sure there are a lot of other little subtleties to the motion of the three bodies that I have never noticed or learned of as well. APOD is a great place to find out about those.
[quote="Boomer12k"]... and remembered, HEY...tonight was the eclipse. (nearly forgot!)... Turned, and there it was :D ...[/quote]
Nice, Boomer, you got some great shots! So you can't say that your area is *always* cloudy when the fun happens! (But it can sure be a problem in the Pacific Northwest USA, if that's where you are.) Anyway, glad you got a good view of this one :)
I thought it was interesting to watch the movement of the shadow over the face of the Moon. Earlier in history, when people didn't have this all figured out, if they at least knew it was Earth's shadow as it came between the Sun and Moon, then as one stands there on a point on the surface of the Earth, the Moon appears to be setting, moving down to the horizon, so one would most simply imagine the shadow of Earth coming in from the bottom and moving up to cover the Moon, but that's not what happens. The shadow progresses in the other direction.
On the other hand, if you think of the light source, the Sun, and it was coming up over the other horizon, and if you thought of it as a race, and had made the measurements that the Sun goes around the Earth faster than the Moon, then you'd get the correct conclusion, that the shadow must move in the "forward" direction. I guess that's right, in a way, but it seems a misguided way to think about it when one has the more complete Copernican model of things to work from.
Still, I think the motion of the shadow is an interesting clue to the puzzle as man considered it back in antiquity. I am pretty sure there are a lot of other little subtleties to the motion of the three bodies that I have never noticed or learned of as well. APOD is a great place to find out about those.