ECLIPSE
Science behind an APOD Photo
A rare hybrid solar eclipse: Analyzing the science of a photograph
Although solar eclipses are striking in and of themselves, the 2005 eclipse in the NASA photograph was notable given that "a total or an annular eclipse could be seen depending on the observer's location" causing it to be labeled a hybrid eclipse (Nemiroff & Bonnell 2013). A photograph was captured of a total eclipse with the shadow of the moon covering the sun for a few minutes, as taken by a photographer named Fred Espenak on a ship "about 2,200 kilometers west of the Galapagos, the eclipse was total, the lunar silhouette exactly covering the bright solar disk for a few brief moments. His camera captured a picture of totality revealing the extensive solar corona and prominences rising above the Sun's edge (Nemiroff & Bonnell 2013). In contrast, another photographer from a different vantage point near Panama took a photograph which suggested that the "Moon's apparent size had shrunk enough to create an annular eclipse, showing a complete annulus of the Sun's bright disk as a dramatic ring of fire" (Nemiroff & Bonnell 2013).
Such hybrid eclipses are extremely rare: only 3.1% of all eclipses are of this...
Galactic Photo This image is of the galactic center, which is the center of the Milky Way. The photograph is taken using infrared light, which changes the appearance of dust particles so that they do not obscure the image. As Wright (2003) points out, the universe is filled with dust, which tends to block the light being emitted from light-giving objects like stars. The composition of most galactic dust includes carbon,
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