BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy American Eclipse August 21st

This image of the August 21st solar eclipse shows sunspots and some other strange spots. It's a composite image made up of seven frames taken by photographer Joel Kowsky near Banner, Wyoming. It shows a partially eclipsed Sun being transited by the International Space Station (ISS).

Can't tell if the crew were waving. Onboard as part of Expedition 52 are: NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson, Jack Fischer, and Randy Bresnik; Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Sergey Ryazanskiy; and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Paolo Nespoli.

Photo Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

It's another one! Simon Tang in Huron, California caught the ISS transiting a partially eclipsed Sun. The whole transit takes less than a second, but you don't want the space station to be blurred, so exposure time has to be less than 1/1000th of a second. Good job done here!

People often think that it's only in a clear sky that you can get a good view of an eclipse. However you may see it all in a partly cloudy sky, and the clouds may make for atmospheric photos.

Here is a Diamond Ring in a Cloudy Sky taken by Ashley Marando in Central, South Carolina. The photographer has captured the moment of a diamond ring, with drifting clouds. Exquixite.

Did you know that one day in the distant future - about 600 million years from now - there won't be any more total eclipses?

Total eclipses can happen now because the Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon, BUT the Moon is about 400 times closer. So they appear to be about the same size in the Earth's sky.

However, like the Martian moon Deimos, the Moon is slowly moving away from us - about 4 cm (1.5 inches) a year. That is definitely slow. But eventually the Moon won't be able to hide the Sun completely. However there will still be annular eclipses. An annular eclipse is often called a "ring of fire".

Here is a spectacular annular eclipse photographed behind palm trees (January 1992) by noted astrophotographer Dennis L. Mammana.

Now, that is fascinating!

I keep thinking that this eclipse thread is complete, but then I find another great picture. Here is Fred Espenak's Eclipsosaurus Rex.

Image Credit & Copyright: Fred Espenak (MrEclipse.com)