Planets and Moons
ID: 12117
On August 21, 2017, the Earth will cross the shadow of the Moon, creating a total solar eclipse. Eclipses happen about every six months, but this one is special. For the first time in almost 40 years, the path of the Moon's shadow passes through the continental United States.
The video features several visualizations of this event. From behind the Earth, we see the night sides of both the Earth and Moon and the umbral and penumbral shadow cones projecting from the Moon. We then see the tilted orbit of the Moon and the long, thin shadow cones striking the Earth. In the view from behind the Moon, we see the daylit far side of the Moon and the western hemisphere of the Earth, and from this vantage point, the outline of the shadow on the Earth is circular.
Most of the video shows a close-up view of the U.S. during the eclipse. Everyone there will see the Moon at least partially block the Sun, but those along the path of totality, shown in red, will see the Moon block the Sun entirely. The appearance of the Sun throughout the eclipse is shown for a number of locations in North America, with each Sun image oriented to the local horizon.
Some of the visualizations use extremely long telephoto lenses to visually compress the scene, but all of them are geometrically accurate and true to scale. Go here for more details about the calculations and for links to each of the visualizations.
Visualizing the 2017 All-American Eclipse
The video features several visualizations of this event. From behind the Earth, we see the night sides of both the Earth and Moon and the umbral and penumbral shadow cones projecting from the Moon. We then see the tilted orbit of the Moon and the long, thin shadow cones striking the Earth. In the view from behind the Moon, we see the daylit far side of the Moon and the western hemisphere of the Earth, and from this vantage point, the outline of the shadow on the Earth is circular.
Most of the video shows a close-up view of the U.S. during the eclipse. Everyone there will see the Moon at least partially block the Sun, but those along the path of totality, shown in red, will see the Moon block the Sun entirely. The appearance of the Sun throughout the eclipse is shown for a number of locations in North America, with each Sun image oriented to the local horizon.
Some of the visualizations use extremely long telephoto lenses to visually compress the scene, but all of them are geometrically accurate and true to scale. Go here for more details about the calculations and for links to each of the visualizations.
Source Material
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Credits
Genna Duberstein (USRA): Lead Producer
Ernie Wright (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Ernie Wright (USRA): Lead Writer
Genna Duberstein (USRA): Lead Editor
Ernie Wright (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Ernie Wright (USRA): Lead Writer
Genna Duberstein (USRA): Lead Editor
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12117
This item is part of these series:
Narrated Movies
2017 Solar Eclipse
Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Moon
SVS >> Eclipse
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12117
This item is part of these series:
Narrated Movies
2017 Solar Eclipse
Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Moon
SVS >> Eclipse
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons
