hey there celestial sight seers let's talk penumbral eclipses because when
most people hear the word eclipse they think something like this or something
like this and yes those things are really really awesome and they're really
cool to see and they're definitely events that you should try to see if you
have a clear sky or if you happen to be in the path of say something like an
annular solar eclipse but penumbral lunar eclipses are a completely
different thing even though they're kind of caused by
the same forces so I've two lights going right here but I only need one that's
gonna act as the Sun so it give me one second and I'm going to turn off a light
I'll be back okay so that's the Sun this is the earth it's spinning and we've got
the moon note this is not to scale also this moon happens to glow different
colors even so with the moon it goes around the earth and as it does so it is
tipped at an angle of about five degrees now the moon itself only subtends a
half a degree in the sky so you could actually cover that with your pinky
because if you hold your pinky out at arm's length the distance across your
pinky is about one degree so you can cover that entire massive looking
Harvest Moon in October with just your pinky because it's only half a degree
across so because it's only half a degree across and the tilt is five
degrees it's not always going to create a lunar eclipse or a solar eclipse each
time the moon goes around the earth so what happens is is we call those areas
where the moon is going across the ecliptic which is the line that the Sun
appears to trace in the sky with that plane that the moon goes around when
those two things cross they're called nodes when it's going from north to
south we call it descending node when it's going from south to north we call
it ascending node and when those nodes happen when the moon is either opposite
the Sun from the earth or between this in the earth then we either get a solar
eclipse or a lunar eclipse but because that angle is tilted when it doesn't
quite hit the node exactly then we get something called a penumbral eclipse
which means that instead of that darkest part of the shadow completely blocking
the moon and giving that that nice dark blood-red color it's only partially in
shadow so a portion of the shadow of the earth blocks that but most of it's still
in light it's not fully in light like most times that it goes around but it is
partially in and you can kind of see how that changes look at that see it's a
little bit different but then umbral it's all the way dark but penumbral not
quite very dark and not very interesting to look at so that's when you kind of
get a reaction like this: "Penumbral lunar eclipse." "Oh an eclipse?" "Mm-hmm."
"Oh. Thanks." Yeah. Exactly. So penumbral eclipse not the dark kind
not the full moon either but maybe interesting to watch enough to maybe pay
attention to and just look up and say hey that's kind of cool and now you're
smart enough to explain it to somebody else that's all for this video I hope
you enjoyed it and check out my other videos where I help people find
interesting things in the night sky to see with telescopes binoculars or naked
eye as well as how to use telescopes and even just get oriented in the night sky
on my channel eyes on the sky thanks for watching penumbral solar eclipse
I said penumbral SOLAR eclipse let's try that again
take 2 penumbral lunar eclipse I was communicating with lights with - I don't know what the **** I'm saying, but let's just go with it...
penumbral lunar eclipse oh an eclipse yeah oh I think I have to go poop