What is the difference between a solar and lunar eclipse? What are solar and lunar eclipses?

The moon obscures the sun called a "solar eclipse", and a solar eclipse always occurs on the first day of the lunar calendar. When the Moon turns to the side of the Earth facing away from the Sun, the Earth is in the middle of the Sun and the Moon, and when the three celestial bodies are in a straight line or close to a straight line, the Earth blocks the light from the Sun on the Moon. Then we see a faint round shadow reflected on the moon, and the moon darkens and becomes bronze.

This shadow is the shadow of the earth. The Earth's shadow reflected on the Moon is called a "lunar eclipse". Lunar eclipses always occur on the first and a half months of the lunar calendar.

We say that solar eclipses always occur on the first day of the lunar calendar, but not every lunar first day of the lunar calendar will occur on the first day of the solar calendar. Because the circle of the moon around the earth and the circle of the earth around the sun are not on the same plane. When looking at the Moon on Earth, sometimes the Moon passes above or below the Sun, and the three celestial bodies are not in a straight line or close to a straight line, so the Moon does not obscure the Sun and a solar eclipse does not occur.

In the same way, although a lunar eclipse always occurs in a lunar month and a half, it does not occur every lunar month and a half. This is because the moon is in a straight line or nearly a straight line with the sun and the earth at the end of the moon and a half. If the moon passes above or below the Earth's shadow, the Earth will not be able to block the sun's rays shining on the moon, and a lunar eclipse will not occur.

The light that the moon blocks from the sun shining on the earth is a solar eclipse. The Moon is in the middle and the Earth blocks the light from the Sun shining on the Moon so that we cannot see that the Moon is a lunar eclipse. The Earth is in the middle.

A solar eclipse is when the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth.

A solar eclipse is a solar eclipse A lunar eclipse is a lunar eclipse.

Solar Eclipse:

A solar eclipse, also known as a solar eclipse, is the Moon.

Moving between the sun and the earth, if the three are exactly in a straight line, the moon will block the sun's light towards the earth, and the black shadow behind the moon will fall on the earth, and a solar eclipse will occur.

In folklore, this phenomenon is called the Tengu Eclipse Day.

Solar eclipses only occur at the New Year, when the Moon and the Sun are conjunct. Solar eclipses are divided into partial solar eclipses and total solar eclipses.

Annular solar eclipse, total annular eclipse. You can't look directly at the sun when observing a solar eclipse, otherwise it will cause temporary blindness, and in severe cases, permanent blindness.

In 2020, there were two solar eclipses that could be observed worldwide, the annular solar eclipse on June 21 and the total solar eclipse in the early hours of December 15.

Lunar Eclipse:

A lunar eclipse, also known as a lunar eclipse.

When the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow (the shadow is divided into umbra and penumbra), some or all of the parts that could have been illuminated by the sun's rays cannot be illuminated by direct sunlight, making it impossible for observers on the Earth to see the ordinary moon phase.

astronomical phenomena.

When a lunar eclipse occurs, the Sun, Earth, and Moon happen to be or almost in the same straight line, so the eclipse must occur on the night of the Full Moon (lunar calendar.

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As the saying goes, "a solar eclipse is a new one, and a lunar eclipse is a hope."

The Earth's shadow is located at the Earth's rotation.

In the orbital plane (ecliptic plane), this plane does not coincide with the lunar orbital plane (white plane), and the angle of intersection of the yellow and white planes is about 5 degrees; During most Full Moons, the Moon is not in the ecliptic plane, but is either north or south, not in the Earth's shadow, so not every Full Moon eclipse occurs. Lunar eclipses occur at least twice a year around the world.

May 26, 2021, "Supermoon + Red Moon."

Total Lunar Eclipse" was unveiled in groups.

When the moon passes in front of the sun, the shadow of the moon is cast on the earth. Its projection on the Earth is so small that it can only obscure a small area of the ground, which is only about 160 kilometers or even smaller. In other words, you may be able to see the entire Sun disappear, but others a few kilometers away may see that the Moon is only partially obscuring the Sun, which is a "partial solar eclipse", while people further away may not see the eclipse at all.

As the Moon moves, the Moon's shadow will change position on the Earth's surface, but the area it passes on the ground is only a small fraction of the Earth's surface, and it only lasts for about 7 minutes at most, no matter where it is. The sun and moon look different sizes no matter where they are in the sky. Because the Moon is smaller than the Sun, it cannot completely obscure the Sun when it is between the Earth and the Sun, and at this time, we will see a dazzling ring of light around the Moon's shadow, which is what we commonly call an "annular solar eclipse".

At some point, there will also be a lunar eclipse. This phenomenon only occurs on full moon days, when the sun and moon are on opposite sides of the earth and in a straight line. Because the Earth is larger than the Moon, its projection is also larger than that of the Moon.

When the Earth's projection can obscure the entire moon, a lunar eclipse is possible. At this time, people who are directly facing the moon can see the lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses also last a bit longer than solar eclipses.

In addition, lunar eclipses do not occur every full moon because the moon and the sun have different orbits and cycles. Usually, on full moon days, the projection of the Earth passes above or below the moon. And only when the Sun and Moon are in the same line, there will be a lunar eclipse.

The record of a lunar eclipse in Mesopotamia in 2283 BC is the earliest in the world, followed by the Chinese record of a lunar eclipse in 1136 BC. The phenomenon of lunar eclipses has been driving the development of human understanding. As early as 1881, Zhang Heng, an astronomer in the Han Dynasty of China, figured out the principle of lunar eclipses.

In the 4th century BCE, Aristotle observed that the shadow of the Earth was round when he observed a lunar eclipse, thus inferring that the Earth was spherical. The ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus in the 3rd century BC and Ibargos in the 2nd century BC both proposed the determination of the relative size of the sun-earth-moon system by lunar eclipses. Iba Valley also proposed to measure geographic longitude by observing lunar eclipses at the same time in two places far apart.

In the 2nd century, Ptolemy used ancient records of lunar eclipses to study the movement of the moon, a method that continues to this day. Before the advent of rockets and artificial Earth satellites, scientists had been exploring the Earth's atmospheric structure by observing lunar eclipses.

The biggest difference is that a solar eclipse occurs during the day and a lunar eclipse occurs at night.

Solar eclipse: It is the movement of the moon between the sun and the earth, if the three are exactly in a straight line, the moon will block the light of the sun towards the earth, and the black shadow behind the moon will fall on the earth, and the solar eclipse phenomenon will occur. Solar eclipses generally occur on the first day of the lunar calendar.

Lunar eclipse: When the lunar cover slowly moves to the shadow part of the Earth, the area between the Moon and the Earth will be blocked by the Earth's sunlight, and a piece of the Moon will be missing. The Sun, Earth, and Moon at this time happen to be (or almost) in the same straight line.

Lunar eclipses can be divided into three types: partial lunar eclipses, total lunar eclipses, and penumbral lunar eclipses. Lunar eclipses can only occur around the 15th day of the lunar calendar.

Solar and lunar eclipses are typical examples of light propagating in a straight line in the same homogeneous medium. It is not every time a solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves between the sun and the earth, and two conditions need to be met for a solar eclipse to occur. First, solar eclipses always occur on New Year's Day (the first day of the lunar calendar).

Eclipses are not guaranteed on all New Moons, because the Moon's orbit (the white path) and the Earth's orbit (the ecliptic) are not in the same plane. The plane of the white and the plane of the ecliptic have an angle of 5°9. Second, both the Sun and the Moon move near the intersection of the white and ecliptic paths, and the Sun is at a certain angle from the intersection (eclipse limit).

Since the orbits of the moon and the earth are not perfectly circular, and the distance between the sun and the moon and the earth is sometimes near and sometimes far, the shadow formed by the sun's obscuration by the moon can be divided into a shadow, a pseudoumbra (formed when the moon is far away from the earth) and a penumbra on the earth. The observer is in the umbra range and can see a total solar eclipse; An annular solar eclipse can be seen in the pseudoumbra range; In the penumbra of the deletal zone, only a partial solar eclipse can be seen.

There are many high mountains on the surface of the moon, and the edge of the moon is untidy. When the valley on the edge of the moon fails to completely cover the sun at the moment of eclipse or the arrival of light, the uncovered part forms a luminous area, like a crystal "diamond"; The pale red ring around it forms the "ring" of the diamond ring, and on the whole, it looks like a diamond ring inlaid with brilliant gemstones, called a "diamond ring". Sometimes many particularly bright rays or points of light are formed, as if a string of pearls is set around the sun, called "Bailey beads" (Bailey was a French astronomer).

Whether it's a partial solar eclipse, a total solar eclipse, or an annular solar eclipse, the time is very short. The area where solar eclipses can be seen on Earth is also limited, because the Moon is relatively small, and its umbra is also relatively small and short, so the umbra does not sweep over the Earth for a long time, because the average length of the lunar umbra (373293 km) is less than the average distance between the Moon and the Earth (384,400 km), for the whole Earth, annular solar eclipses occur more often than total solar eclipses.

The difference between a solar and a lunar eclipse is as follows:

1. The causes are different.

Solar eclipse: A solar eclipse, also known as a solar eclipse, is the movement of the moon between the sun and the earth, if the three are exactly in a straight line, the moon will block the light of the sun to the earth, and the black shadow behind the moon falls on the earth, and then the solar eclipse phenomenon occurs.

Lunar eclipse: A lunar eclipse is a special astronomical phenomenon that refers to the area between the Moon and the Earth when the Moon moves to the shadow part of the Earth, because the sunlight is blocked by the Earth, and a piece of the Moon is missing.

2. There are different types of inclusions.

Solar eclipses: Solar eclipses are divided into four types: partial solar eclipses, total solar eclipses, annular solar eclipses, and total annular eclipses. Lunar eclipses: Lunar eclipses can be divided into three types: partial lunar eclipses, total lunar eclipses, and penumbral lunar eclipses.

3. The time of occurrence is different.

Solar eclipse: A solar eclipse generally occurs on the first day of the lunar calendar. Lunar Eclipse: Lunar eclipses can only occur around the 15th lunar calendar.

4. Observe different moral phenomena.

Solar eclipse: Total solar eclipse and annular solar eclipse have five processes: initial loss, eclipse, eclipse, light, and recirclement, while partial solar eclipse only has three processes: initial loss, eclipse, and recirclement. Lunar Eclipse:

The process of the official lunar eclipse is divided into five stages: the first loss, the eclipse, the eclipse, the rebirth, and the recuperation.

The principle of a solar eclipse

The Tang Dynasty poet Lu Tong's poem "Looking at the eclipse of the moon and the moon disappears, and the moon covers the sun and the sun is lacking", that is, it tells the truth that the lunar eclipse occurs in Wang, and the solar eclipse occurs in Shuo.

Theoretically, a total solar eclipse would only occur in the aphelion region of the Moon. According to calculations, when the aphelion of the Moon and the aphelion of the Sun occur at the same time, the width of the total solar eclipse window of the Earth is about 208 km, and when the aphelion of the Moon and the perihelion of the Sun occur, the width of the total solar eclipse window is about 100 km (only the umbra and no penumbra). When the Moon is at perihelion, only annular solar eclipses can be observed from every corner of the Earth, that is, the penumbra of the Sun overlaps with the umbra.