Solar Eclipse!

As some of you know, Kelly is also an astronomy instructor for a community college in Arkansas. So, of course, she and Shawn were out watching the annular solar eclipse Saturday Oct 14th with their special eclipse glasses. Except for the few moments of totality in a total solar eclipse, do not look at the sun without a filter.

In April 2024, the moon will be in the part of its path that is closer to the Earth, so it will cover more of the sun’s surface.

In both a total and annular eclipse, the sun is covered by the moon. The difference is where the moon is in its orbit around Earth. While we often picture the Earth making a perfect circle around the sun, we in fact orbit in a slightly eccentric ellipse. All the planets make an ellipses some more circular and some more elongated. The moons around planets, including our own, have this shape as well. When the moon is on its closer approach to Earth in its elliptical orbit, it will cover more of the sun’s surface than when it is farther. The eclipse that just happened occurred when the moon was a bit further away from Earth, so it covered less of the surface. It leaves a ring of fire around the sun for places that cross 100% totality. Here in Berthoud we were l icily enough to have approximately 80% totality, which means we saw the sun as pac man rather than a ring of fire.

Leaves act as a pin hole camera and create the pattern of the solar eclipse on the ground! Super cool!