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Understanding a Solar Eclipse— Why they are so rare? In a total eclipse, the moon passes in front of the sun and blocks its light out. If it is that simple, why aren’t eclipses more common? After all, the new moon passes on the sun’s side of the earth every twenty-nine and half days. The answer is that the moon’s orbit around the earth is tilted. Consequently, most new moons pass below or above the plane of the earth’s orbit around the sun. The moon only subtends half a degree in the sky, so the new moon has to occur precisely when the moon’s up and down wandering align with the plane of the earth’s orbit to produce an eclipse. The next question one might ask is how can the moon, as small as it is, cover the sun. The answer is that while the moon is four hundredths the sun’s diameter, fortune has incredibly arranged it such that it is also four hundred times closer to the earth than the sun. Not only does this unlikely arrangement give us the spectacle of a total eclipse, but in just covering the sun’s disc, it has made it possible to learn all manner of things about the sun itself. A total eclipse even provided the first proof of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Even with perfect alignment, you don’t necessarily get a total eclipse. The moon’s orbit is not only inclined; it is also not perfectly round. Sometimes it is closer to the earth, and sometimes further away. If an eclipse alignment occurs when the moon is more distant, it does not quite cover the sun, and we get an annular eclipse. Not covering the sun’s disc, annular eclipses, like partial eclipses, don’t provide the same phenomena or experience as a total eclipse. The partial eclipse that we will experience on October the 14th, 2023 will be an annular eclipse in Texarkana, which points out that what you witness during an eclipse, indeed whether you see it at all, depends upon your location on the earth. Outside of totality, the moon passes across the sun either a bit high or low such that it never covers it all, so you get a partial eclipse. The further you are from totality, the less of the sun is covered. The totality area on earth is in the umbral shadow of the moon, where all direct sunlight is blocked. The area outside of totality, where there is a partial eclipse, lies in the penumbral shadow. This partial eclipse is just a glimpse at the wonder of a total eclipse that we have a front-row view of in April!
12:28 pm Partial eclipse will begin
1:46 pm - 1:49 pm Total eclipse, complete darkness during this time (could last up to 4m18s, depending on weather)
3:07 pm Second half of partial eclipse ends
SOURCE Arkansas Natural Sky Association
Fall 2023 | Texarkana Community Directory | 27
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