Time-Lapse: A Total Solar Eclipse
Video Credit & Copyright:
Colin Legg
Have you ever
experienced a total eclipse of the Sun?
This time-lapse movie
depicts such an eclipse in dramatic detail,
seen from
Australia in 2012.
As the video begins, a slight dimming of the Sun and the surrounding Earth is barely perceptible.
As the Moon moves to
cover
nearly the entire Sun, darkness sweeps in from the left --
the fully blocked part of the Sun.
At totality, only the bright
solar corona extends past the edges of
the Moon, and darkness surrounds you.
Distant horizons are still bright, though, as they are not
in the darkest part of the shadow.
At mid-totality the darkness dips to the horizon below the
eclipsed Sun, created by the shadow cone --
a corridor of shadow that traces back to the Moon.
As the
total
solar eclipse ends -- usually after a few minutes --
the process reverses and
Moon's shadow moves off to the other side.
Tomorrow afternoon's total solar eclipse --
visible as at least a partial eclipse over all of North America -- can be
experienced at social
gatherings,
some of which are being organized by
local libraries.