LUNAR ECLIPSE: What causes it?
I remembered something very significant that happened when I was in junior secondary school, a broadcast was released which had it that eclipse was going to happen.
People said numerous things - unverified information that made our hearts to beat very fast and churned our stomach; educated and uneducated people alike.
We all waited for the day fateful day. The day later came, you know what? The eclipse happened but it wasn't very obvious. We were told later that what happened was partial eclipse and not total eclipse of the sun.
Have you ever witnessed solar eclipse or any other type of eclipse?
I will love to know what the experience was like.
Eclipse is a phenomenon whereby one heavenly body appears in the shadow of another planetary objects.
That's to say when one astronomical object blocks lights from reaching another body.
In years past, cultures and races tried to understand the heavenly bodies, prompting the intellectuals to create literally works based on their knowledge of what celestial bodies were.
Technological advancement is not left behind in uncovering the mystery behind the skies and the firmaments.
The planets can never be discussed without mentioning eclipse.
There are two types of eclipse
Solar eclipse and lunar eclipse
Solar eclipse
This occurs when the sun, the moon and the earth are all on the same linear position. With the moon standing in the middle of the sun and the earth.
And the moon shielding the earth away from the rays of the sun.
Total solar eclipse happens when the moon completely covers the sun leaving just the corona part of the sun to be clearly seen.
Annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon partially cover the sun because the moon appear to be smaller than sun. This produces a shinny ring of the sun around the moon.
Causes of lunar eclipse
What the ancestors believed caused lunar eclipse
Do you know that in the time long past, lunar eclipse was believed to be an evil omen that seemed so difficult to deal with. Ancient Chinese attributed lunar eclipse to a dragon destroying the sun.
More so, Native American people, Asians, Europeans and African people believed lunar eclipse was a sign that a powerful monster had swallowed the sun.
Isn't all these beliefs funny?
The main cause of Lunar eclipse
Lunar eclipse tend to occur when the earth passes between the sun and the moon at the time of full moon phase.
Here the moon moves in the shadow of the earth cast by the sun.
The moon appears on the shadow of the earth. Some rays of the sun shinning on the earth surface gets refracted on the moon impacting a reddish hue.on the moon.
The earth shadow consist of two parts:
Umbra ( the inner, darker shadow) and penumbra ( outer, lighter shadow)
Causes of total lunar eclipse
This occurs whenever the moon totally appears in the Earth's umbra.
Causes of partial lunar eclipse
This is when the moon partially appears in the Earth's umbra. This partially dims the moon.
Causes of penumbral eclipse
The phenomenon whereby the moon moves in the earth penumbra is said to be penumbral eclipse.
This means that the moon enters the outer part of the earth. Here, the earth receives small amount of the sun light.
#naturefreak
#eclipse
Sharing = earning
1,000,000 views = € 1,000
100,000 views = € 100
10,000 views = € 10
1,000 views = € 1
500 views = € 0.50
250 views = € 0.25
100 views = € 0.10
50 views = € 0.05
25 views = € 0.025
10 views = € 0.01
And much more
- Comments (22)
- Recommended
- Milestones
Here are your recommended items...
Here are your milestones...
But a lunar eclipse is also quite fascinating.
Very interesting weblog !