Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2020 February 10

                         Solar Eclipse over the UAE
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Joshua Cripps

   Explanation: What's happening behind that camel? A partial eclipse of
   the Sun. About six and a half weeks ago, the Moon passed completely in
   front of the Sun as seen from a narrow band on the Earth. Despite
   (surely) many camels being located in this narrow band, only one found
   itself stationed between this camera, the distant Moon, and the even
   more distant Sun. To create this impressive superposition, though, took
   a well-planned trip to the United Arab Emirates, careful alignments,
   and accurate timings on the day of the eclipse. Although the resulting
   featured image shows a partially eclipsed Sun rising, the Moon went on
   to appear completely engulfed by the Sun in an annular eclipse known as
   a ring of fire. Forward scattering of sunlight, dominated by quantum
   mechanical diffraction, gives the camel hair and rope fray an unusual
   glow. The next solar eclipse is also an annular eclipse and will occur
   this coming June.

                       Tomorrow's picture: sky divide
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