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Birthday · February 18, 2017

Penumbral Eclipse Rising

February 18, 2017

On this day, the universe repeated one of its rarest tricks: it arranged dust, light, memory, and possibility into a person no equation...

Penumbral Eclipse Rising

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APOD published February 18, 2017. Credit: Bill Jelen. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.

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Penumbral Eclipse Rising

Original APOD · February 18, 2017

As seen from Cocoa Beach Pier, Florida, planet Earth, the Moon rose at sunset on February 10 while gliding through Earth's faint outer shadow. In progress was the first eclipse of 2017, a penumbral lunar eclipse followed in this digital stack of seaside exposures. Of course, the penumbral shadow is lighter than the planet's umbral shadow. That central, dark, shadow is easily seen on the lunar disk during a total or partial lunar eclipse. Still, in this penumbral eclipse the limb of the Moon grows just perceptibly darker as it rises above the eastern horizon. The second eclipse of 2017 could be more dramatic though. With viewing from a path across planet Earth's southern hemisphere, on February 26 there will be an annular eclipse of the Sun.

Image credit: Bill Jelen

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