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APOD: An Annular Solar Eclipse over New Mexico (2023 Sep 10)

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2023 4:05 am
by APOD Robot
Image An Annular Solar Eclipse over New Mexico

Explanation: What is this person doing? In 2012, an annular eclipse of the Sun was visible over a narrow path that crossed the northern Pacific Ocean and several western US states. In an annular solar eclipse, the Moon is too far from the Earth to block out the entire Sun, leaving the Sun peeking out over the Moon's disk in a ring of fire. To capture this unusual solar event, an industrious photographer drove from Arizona to New Mexico to find just the right vista. After setting up and just as the eclipsed Sun was setting over a ridge about 0.5 kilometers away, a person unknowingly walked right into the shot. Although grateful for the unexpected human element, the photographer never learned the identity of the silhouetted interloper. It appears likely that the person is holding a circular device that would enable them to get their own view of the eclipse. The shot was taken at sunset on 2012 May 20 at 7:36 pm local time from a park near Albuquerque. Next month, on October 14, a different narrow swath across North and South America will be exposed to a different annular solar eclipse, if the sky is clear. Simultaneously, cloud-free observers almost anywhere on either continent will be able to see a partial solar eclipse.

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Re: APOD: An Annular Solar Eclipse over New Mexico (2023 Sep 10)

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2023 8:58 am
by Holger Nielsen
How far away is the boy? Measuring on the image on my screen the diameter of the Sun is 220 mm, corresponding to an angle of about 30′ or 0.50°. The image height of the boy is 70 mm, so he extends an angle of 70/220∙0.50° = 0.159°. Estimating his physical height to be 160 cm or 1.60 m, his distance from the observer should be around 1.60 m / tan(0.159°) = 576 m. So the distance is about 600 meters.

Re: APOD: An Annular Solar Eclipse over New Mexico (2023 Sep 10)

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2023 2:30 pm
by Sa Ji Tario
Do a calculation for a child of 1.40m

Re: APOD: An Annular Solar Eclipse over New Mexico (2023 Sep 10)

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2023 6:07 pm
by johnnydeep
Holger Nielsen wrote: Sun Sep 10, 2023 8:58 am How far away is the boy? Measuring on the image on my screen the diameter of the Sun is 220 mm, corresponding to an angle of about 30′ or 0.50°. The image height of the boy is 70 mm, so he extends an angle of 70/220∙0.50° = 0.159°. Estimating his physical height to be 160 cm or 1.60 m, his distance from the observer should be around 1.60 m / tan(0.159°) = 576 m. So the distance is about 600 meters.
The ridge the Sun is setting over is supposedly .5 km away. Not sure if the grass/brush seen in photo is ON the ridge or nearer though, or even if the boy is closer than the ridge.

Re: APOD: An Annular Solar Eclipse over New Mexico (2023 Sep 10)

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2023 8:54 pm
by orin stepanek
AnnularEclipse_Pinski_960.jpg
Nice photo of eclipse!
gettyimages-696166057.jpg
Kitty peeking!