eclipse APOD 30 March 2006

[John Carswell]

I do not understand why the eclipse traveled from west to east. It seems that we should travel under the shadow as we ride the earth to the east. I am sorry to ask a stupid question, but I am old and not well educated.

[dogel]

I found this website http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/2006/index.html yesterday. If you click on "click here for windows media stream" you can watch the solar eclipse as seen from turkey. The video is over an hour long but you can skip through it. Early in the video I think they explain exactly how and why an eclipse occurs. I figured a visual representation would be far better than a written one. By the way, your question isn't stupid.

[John Carswell]

I think I might have figured it out. The shadow would move east if the whole earth travels through the shadow faster than it's rotation carries any given place on its surface in the opposite direction. Also, the moon is moving so if the earth were stopped in it's orbital path and not rotating, the shadow would move east. Three motions, the earth in it's orbit, the earth on it's axis, and the moon in it's orbit determine the point at which a projection of a line from the center of the sun through the center of the moon ( the eclipse shadow) falls on the surface of the earth. It seems like I should be able to understand this if people have been calculating eclipse time and place for 3000 years.

[kovil]

Not to be an eclipse party pooper but;

This picture is grossly overexposed.
There are no diamonds remotely possible to be seen.

[BMAONE23]

The shadow also moves from west to east if it is caused by the moon's movement (orbit). As the Moon moves accross the face of the sun, its shadow moves accross the face of the earth but slightly faster.