Eclipse: Lunar and Solar

Warning:

Do not view the sun with your eyes directly or through transparent media. Adopt recommended safety measures if you want to do so…………else you’ll simply “GO BLIND FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE”

An eclipse is a very rare occassion from our point of view.
As a starter, for those who don’t know anything about it, i’d say:
” It isn’t any kind of Divine Intervention”
Consider three planets A, B and C (or heavenly bodies) in space. They move about each other. Consider yourself in planet A. You’ll be able to see planets B and C from there.

One day, you find that planet B has blocked your sight of planet C. In other words, planet B has come between you( you are, at present, on planet A) and planet C.

You won’t be able to see planet C until planet B has moved away from that position.

This isn’t what we call eclipse……………but it’s the basic idea behind the word.

Here on Earth, the two heavenly bodies that we can see with our naked eyes are:

1) the Moon

2)the Sun (don’t look at the sun with your naked eyes………..if you do, your eyes get burned permanently and you’ll be blind forever)

So, we can experience two kinds of eclipses with our naked eyes:

1)the Lunar eclipse

2)the Solar eclipse

Lunar Eclipse

Our Earth moves rotates around the Sun and the Moon rotates around the Earth.

At some point in time, the Earth occupies a position between the Moon and the Sun in space. The sunlight that is travelling towards the Moon is blocked by the Earth.So, the shadow of the Earth falls on the Moon. Thus, the Moon, which is normally white, fades off from the sky………..’coz it is in the shadow of our Earth.

The umbra is the darker part of the shadow and the penumbra is the not-so-dark part of the shadow.

Thus, we experience Lunar Eclipse.

Partial and Total Lunar Eclipses

If you know anything about probability (it’s not necessary that you know it), you should know that the chances of hitting a bull’s eye is much lesser than the chances of hitting anywhere on the target.

Similarly, it is less probable that the Earth’s shadow would completely cover the moon.

So, most of the times, we see a part of Earth’s shadow falling on the moon. Then we see the moon being covered partially by the shadow.(this is because the moon and the sun and the earth don’t fall in a straight line always………..big  guys don’t go along so well with each other i guess)

Sometimes, the Earth, the Sun and the Moon fall in a straight line. Then, if the other above mentioned conditions of an eclipse satisfy, the Earth’s shadow completely covers the moon. No part of Moon will be visible for brief duration. This is what we call a Total Lunar Eclipse.

Solar Eclipse

Now, you all read about how the Earth and the Moon moves in space.

So, it is possible for them to attain a configuration in which the Moon is ion between the Earth and the Moon.

In such a configuration, the Moon blocks off the sunlight from reaching the Earth. Thus, the shadow of the Moon falls on Earth. People who are in the shadow of the moon, from their perspective, see that the Sun is getting covered by a dark circle. Hence, we get an eclipse………. a Solar Eclipse………. even the big guys can get covered by the little guy.

Total and Partial Solar Eclipses

As in the case with Lunar Eclipse, there is total and partial Solar eclipse.

Sometimes, only a part of the Moon moves in front of the Sun. Then, only some part of the sunlight gets blocked off by the Moon. Then, we  have Partial Solar Eclipse.

Very rarely, the Moon blocks off the entire sunlight that falls on an area on the Earth.

Then, for people residing in that region, the Sun gets completely covered by the Moon. So, they experience a Total Solar Eclipse.

People in the penumbra region experience Partial Solar Eclipse.

So, a the occurrence of a Partial Solar Eclipse isn’t necessarily associated with a Total Solar Eclipse. But if we can experience Total Solar Eclipse at some place, then at some other place we can surely experience Partial Solar Eclipse.

Why people should never look at the Sun with their naked eyes…….. even if its a Total Solar Eclipse?

The sun is a very bright star from where our Earth sits. You do know how hard it is to stare on the road on a summer’s afternoon (people in cold countries, take a tour package to the Tropics during the summer if you wanna experience this)

(Oh, and by the way, to all those of you who are in the Arctic and the Antarctic…… I know that you’ve never ever experienced an afternoon. But, you too can get a tour package to the Tropics…… just make sure that you have some sunscreen creams………just in case.)

Even 50% bright sunlight is too intense for our eyes. I’ve experienced a total Solar eclipse in the afternoon. It got cooler pretty quick. And, it was a bit shady for an afternoon. But still, the sun was so bright for my eyes.

The Sun sends out scorching fire from it’s surface. These fires are so hot and thousands of miles high. So, even when the Moon blocks off the Sun completely, it still can’t block the intense light of the super-high fire beams. These beams are still so intense for our eyes. Also, the Total Solar Eclipse lasts only a few seconds. After that, the Sun starts to come out of the Moon’s cover. Even 1% of the sun can give out such a high intensity beam that our eyes could get damaged.

So, unless you want to get blind, NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN WITH YOUR NAKED EYES!!!!
You got to say, 1% of visible Sun forms the most brilliant diamond ring I’ve ever seen
(don’t even think of looking at this directly with your eyes on an eclipse day…………why? ‘coz its a sure bet that you’ll go blind!!!)
Is there any kind of Godly intervention in an Eclipse?
To all those who believe that God does exist and to all those who believe that God doesn’t exist:

Don’t change your belief only because of what i say here.

It is very improbable that we can have Lunar and Solar eclipse that are really close…..

Didn’t get what I said?

The Sun is much bigger than the Moon. I mean, you can actually fit millions of Moons in the Sun.

Then how come they appear to be of the same size in the sky?

That is because the Moon is much closer to our Earth than the Sun. That is one reason why we can see the cool diamond ring you saw above.Still, it is very improbable to find ourselves in a position where we can view them as if they are of the same size. It is as if someone intended to place the Earth, the Moon and the Sun this way so that we could experience something that most other alien planets (dunno if they exist) out there cannot……in this vast universe.