Welcome to Learn the Sky, your online resource for learning about the stars and constellations.
Welcome, my name is Janine and in this video we're going to explore the differences and similarities
between a lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse. At the time that this is being filmed in
2021 there happens to be a lunar eclipse that's happening towards the end of May,
and then a solar eclipse that's happening in early June. So I thought this would be a great
opportunity to explore the differences between the two. Now most people have seen a lunar eclipse at
some point in their lifetime. It's much easier to see a lunar eclipse than it is a solar eclipse,
and we'll explore why that is throughout this video, but I wanted to just make sure you
understand the differences at why these things occur to begin with, and how they really are
somewhat connected, because they're both eclipses. So a lunar eclipse is when the moon passes through
the Earth's shadow, and this only occurs at night during the full moon. It's longer in duration
than a solar eclipse, and it occurs more frequently. This is because Earth's shadow
is much broader than the moon's shadow, and when we look at a solar eclipse it's really
the moon shadow that's being projected onto the Earth. So there's two different types. You can
have a total lunar eclipse or a partial lunar eclipse, and what's great about these is that
they're safe to look at. You don't need any eye protection when you're looking at a lunar eclipse.
If we take a look at a diagram of a lunar eclipse we can see that the moon is passing through the
Earth's shadow, and there's two different parts to Earth shadow. You have the umbra, which is
the darker portion, and then the pen umbra as well. I do like this diagram because it just gives you
a different angle as to how we're looking at the lunar eclipse, and you can see that throughout the
time in which the moon is starting to pass through the shadow of the Earth we have the penumbra
right here, and then this is the umbra, and we see more lunar eclipses because the Earth's shadow is
much larger and broader than the moon's shadow, and we'll learn about how the moon's shadow
falls upon the Earth during a solar eclipse. I do like this picture here as well because it shows
you the progression of a lunar eclipse. We first start with the full moon, and then this is where
the eclipse is starting. It's continuing as we go down this way and then we come into the full
eclipse when we get into this orangish color. Keep in mind that there's another total lunar eclipse
coming up on May 26 on 2021. This is called a super blood moon, and it's visible from parts of
Australia, the pacific islands, some of the areas in the Americas, as well as East and South Asia.
Now we'll take a look at some of the characteristics of a solar eclipse.
A solar eclipse is when the Moon covers the Sun, and it can only be seen in the
daytime. This is the opposite of when you can see a lunar eclipse. The moon's narrow shadow
casts this pathway along Earth, and we'll take a look at some diagrams of that soon,
but it's a good thing to keep in mind that it's unsafe to look to look directly at a solar eclipse.
You need eye protection. A solar eclipse is also only visible within a narrow pathway along the
Earth, and this makes it more challenging to see a solar eclipse. I myself have never truly seen
a solar eclipse, so I think the time that I had a great opportunity was like literally like bad
weather when I was a kid, but my hope is at some point in my lifetime I'll be able to travel to a
part of the globe where a solar eclipse will be happening and along that narrow pathway.
So if we take a look at this diagram you can see the arrangement of the Sun, Moon, and Earth. The
Moon covers up the Sun, and it casts this narrow shadow along a pathway on Earth and keep in mind
that because the Moon's shadow is much narrower. That's why we don't see as many solar eclipse,
or why it's harder to see them I should say. Generally there's about two per year of both lunar
and solar eclipses, but that does vary from year to year. So we have our Sun and what happens is
the Moon covers the Sun. Here's another picture of how this arrangement works with the Sun, the Moon,
and the Earth, and you can see that the shadow of the moon is just narrower so it limits
where you can see a solar eclipse. I've got a few diagrams that shows you, this is taken from Noah
and the International Space Station combined with data there, and you can see that this that the
shadow of the Earth is, or excuse me the shadow of the Moon is just traveling along this narrow
pathway, so only people in this pathway would be able to see it. Here's another great diagram that
shows how that shadow is cast upon this pathway. So people that are in this pathway right here
would only be able to see the solar eclipse. So you can see in this particular portion, I mean
it's over the ocean for a good portion of this, and I love this shot as well. This is a picture of
a solar eclipse from the viewpoint of the International Space Station,
so this right here is the shadow of the moon that's cast upon the Earth, and there are
different predictions and maps that you can look up that show you a total and lunar eclipse path.
So these are very helpful because you can know exactly where you should be when a solar eclipse
is going to happen. If you want to see one. Like I said it's really a goal in my lifetime to see
a total solar eclipse, one like this, now it may not look as spectacular as this, because this is
obviously taken with a really fantastic camera, with different filters on it so you can see
different things, but what I love about a total solar eclipse is that you are able to see features
of the Sun that you wouldn't necessarily be able to see otherwise, and that would be the corona.
So all this area right here is the corona of the Sun. You can also see the chromosphere,
which is like kind of right down here this orange piece. You can see that as well, and you're only
really able to see those during a solar eclipse. Keep in mind that you do need eye protection
for a solar eclipse. You should never look directly at the Sun. There's also different types
of solar eclipses as well. There's a partial solar eclipse, and that's when the Moon only partially
blocks part of the Sun's disk, and then you also have an annular eclipse, this is also called a
ring eclipse, and this is when the moon is too far away to completely cover the Sun's disk, and this
is actually going to happen in 2021. On June 10th in 2021 will there be an annular eclipse.
It won't be visible from everywhere on the globe, as I said because
it's a narrow pathway that the eclipse travels from, but it will be seen from the North Pole,
northern parts of Canada, and Russia, and there's some areas in North America that you'll see a
partial eclipse. The next total solar eclipse in the United States, which is where I live is
in 2024, so perhaps I'll be making plans to go see that one as well. In all of my versus
videos I like to use a venn diagram to show the similarities and differences between the two
things that I'm comparing. So we're going to do that for a lunar and solar eclipse.
So they're similar in the sense that they're both celestial events. They're both classified
as eclipses, because one object is coloring another object in the sky, and then it also
is an occurrence that happens because of the arrangement of the Earth's Sun and Moon system.
Now they're different in the sense that the Moon is in the Earth's shadow for a lunar eclipse.
So the moon appears darkened and sometimes because that burnt orange color to it.
It's also longer in duration. From start to finish. It can take between one and a half to two hours.
It's also much easier to see because the shadow of the Earth is larger. Now a solar eclipse is
different because the shadow of the Moon is on the Earth's surface, so the moon is eclipsing the Sun.
It's also shorter in duration. It only lasts about eight minutes, and it can be challenging
to see because you need to be in the path of totality. So I hope this was helpful for you to
know the difference, and how a lunar eclipse happens, and how a solar eclipse happens, and
how they're both similar and different. They're similar because they're eclipse events. Generally
they happen about twice a year, and they happen because of this Sun, Earth, and Moon orientation
to each other. They're different because of the variation of that position of the Sun, and Earth,
and the Moon, and it's also different in terms of the time and day you can view them. Remember that
a solar eclipse is viewed during the day, you need eye protection to see it, where a lunar
eclipse is viewed at night at the full Moon, and you're safe to look at it without eye protection.
Also, the duration of it is different as well. So I wish you luck being able to see
the annular eclipse if you happen to live in that area of the globe, and hopefully you
get to see the total lunar eclipse that's happening in May as well. Thank you as always
for watching! I really appreciate all the support and comments that you guys leave on this channel.
So if you have any questions or comments leave them in the space below. Good luck
seeing a solar or lunar eclipse at some point in your lifetime, and remember it takes time,
patience, and practice when viewing the night sky. So keep going outside, spend time in nature,
and as always keep looking up. If you're new to this channel be sure to click the subscribe
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