|
Have you ever experienced a total eclipse of the Sun?
The
above time-lapse movie depicts such an eclipse in dramatic detail as
visible
from
Australia last month.
As the video begins, a slight dimming of the Sun and the surrounding Earth is barely perceptible.
Suddenly, as the Moon moves to
cover
nearly the entire Sun, darkness sweeps in from the left -- the fully blocked part of the Sun.
At totality, only the bright
solar corona extends past the edges of the Moon, and darkness surrounds you.
Distant horizons are still bright, though, as they are not in the darkest part of the shadow.
At mid-totality the darkness dips to the horizon below the eclipsed Sun, created by the
shadow cone -- a corridor of shadow that traces back to the Moon.
As the total solar eclipse ends -- usually after a few minutes --
the process reverses and
Moon's shadow moves off to the other side.
Solar eclipses
can frequently be
experienced at
gatherings organized along the
narrow eclipse path as well as specialized cruises and plane flights.
Credit & Copyright:
Colin Legg
|
