APOD: A Desert Eclipse (2020 Jan 13)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
Post Reply
User avatar
APOD Robot
Otto Posterman
Posts: 5344
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:27 am
Contact:

APOD: A Desert Eclipse (2020 Jan 13)

Post by APOD Robot » Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:06 am

Image A Desert Eclipse

Explanation: A good place to see a ring-of-fire eclipse, it seemed, would be from a desert. In a desert, there should be relatively few obscuring clouds and trees. Therefore late last December a group of photographers traveled to the United Arab Emirates and Rub al-Khali, the largest continuous sand desert in world, to capture clear images of an unusual eclipse that would be passing over. A ring-of-fire eclipse is an annular eclipse that occurs when the Moon is far enough away on its elliptical orbit around the Earth so that it appears too small, angularly, to cover the entire Sun. At the maximum of an annular eclipse, the edges of the Sun can be seen all around the edges of the Moon, so that the Moon appears to be a dark spot that covers most -- but not all -- of the Sun. This particular eclipse, they knew, would peak soon after sunrise. After seeking out such a dry and barren place, it turned out that some of the most interesting eclipse images actually included a tree in the foreground, because, in addition to the sand dunes, the tree gave the surreal background a contrasting sense of normalcy, scale, and texture.

<< Previous APOD This Day in APOD Next APOD >>

heehaw

Re: APOD: A Desert Eclipse (2020 Jan 13)

Post by heehaw » Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:01 am

Beautiful!

heehaw

Re: APOD: A Desert Eclipse (2020 Jan 13)

Post by heehaw » Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:03 am

OH, today's ESPOD also has an eerie beauty! https://epod.usra.edu/blog/

User avatar
orin stepanek
Plutopian
Posts: 8200
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Nebraska

Re: APOD: A Desert Eclipse (2020 Jan 13)

Post by orin stepanek » Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:22 am

DesertEclipse_Daviron_960.jpg
APOD has really been getting some great photos lately! 8-)
Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

WSOD

Re: APOD: A Desert Eclipse (2020 Jan 13)

Post by WSOD » Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:25 pm

I WONDER HOW THAT LONELY TREE SURVIVES.

User avatar
neufer
Vacationer at Tralfamadore
Posts: 18805
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Location: Alexandria, Virginia

Re: APOD: A Desert Eclipse (2020 Jan 13)

Post by neufer » Mon Jan 13, 2020 1:31 pm

WSOD wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:25 pm
I WONDER HOW THAT LONELY TREE SURVIVES.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub%27_al_Khali wrote:
<<Ali Al-Naimi reports that Rub' al Khali sand dunes don't drift: Sand blows off the surface, of course, but the essential shape of the dunes remains intact, probably due to the moisture leaching up into the base of the dunes from the surrounding sabkhas.>> :tree:
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Art Neuendorffer

Post Reply