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Lunar and Solar Eclipse

This document summarizes lunar and solar eclipses. It explains that a lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is between the sun and moon, casting its shadow on the moon. A solar eclipse occurs at new moon when the moon passes between the Earth and sun, potentially blocking the sun's light. There are three types of each: penumbral, partial, and total lunar eclipses, and partial, annular, and total solar eclipses.

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Ghazali Baloch
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272 views4 pages

Lunar and Solar Eclipse

This document summarizes lunar and solar eclipses. It explains that a lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is between the sun and moon, casting its shadow on the moon. A solar eclipse occurs at new moon when the moon passes between the Earth and sun, potentially blocking the sun's light. There are three types of each: penumbral, partial, and total lunar eclipses, and partial, annular, and total solar eclipses.

Uploaded by

Ghazali Baloch
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lunar and Solar Eclipse

Eclipse:
Eclipse, in astronomy, the obscuring of one celestial body by
another, particularly that of the sun or a planetary satellite.
Two kinds of eclipses involve the earth: those of the moon, or
lunar eclipses; and those of the sun, or solar eclipses.

Lunar eclipse

• A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is between the sun


and the moon and its shadow darkens the moon.
• The earth, lit by the sun, casts a long, conical shadow in
space.
• At any point within that cone the light of the sun is wholly
obscured. Surrounding the shadow cone, also called the
umbra, is an area of partial shadow called the penumbra.
A lunar eclipse can only occur at Full Moon and only if the
Moon passes through some portion of Earth’s shadow. That
shadow is which is composed of two cone-shaped components,
one nested inside the other. The outer or penumbral shadow
blocks part but not all of the Sun’s rays from reaching the
Moon. In contrast, the umbral shadow blocks all direct sunlight
from reaching the Moon.

There are three types of lunar eclipses


1. Penumbral Lunar Eclipse:
It occurs when the moon passes through Earth’s penumbral
shadow. These events are subtle and hard to observe.
2. Partial Lunar Eclipse:
It occurs when a portion of the moon passes through Earth’s
umbral shadow. These events are easy to see, even with the
unaided eye.
3. Total Lunar Eclipse:
Total Lunar eclipse takes place when the entire moon passes
through Earth’s umbral shadow. These events are quite striking
due to the Moon’s vibrant red color during the total phase i.e.
totality.
Solar Eclipse

• A solar eclipse occurs at New Moon when the Moon


passes between Earth and Sun.
• If the Moon’s shadow happens to fall upon Earth’s surface
at that time, some portion of the Sun’s disk covered or
eclipsed by the Moon.
• The solar eclipse doesn’t occur frequently as the Moon’s
orbit around Earth is tilted 5 degrees to Earth’s orbit
around. As a result, the Moon’s shadow usually misses
Earth as it passes above or below earth at New Moon.
• At least twice a year, the geometry lines up just right so
that some part of the Moon’s shadow falls on Earth’s
surface and an eclipse of the Sun is seen from that region.
When the Moon’s penumbral shadow strikes Earth, we see a
partial eclipse of the Sun from that region. Partial eclipses are
dangerous to look at because the un-eclipsed part of the Sun is
still very bright.

The three types of solar eclipses are


1. Partial Eclipse:
A partial eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are not exactly
in line and the Moon only partially obscures the Sun. This
phenomenon can usually be seen from a large part of the Earth
outside of the track of an annular or total eclipse. However,
some eclipses can only be seen as a partial eclipse, because the
umbra never intersects the Earth’s surface.
2. Annular Eclipse:
An annular eclipse occurs when only a small, ring-like sliver of
light is seen from the sun’s disc. The Sun and Moon are exactly
in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of
the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or
annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.
3. Total Eclipse:
A total eclipse occur when the entire central portion of the sun
is blocked out. During any one eclipse, totality is visible only
from at most a narrow track on the surface of the Earth.

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