← Another date

Birthday · June 28, 2021

A Paper Moon Solar Eclipse

June 28, 2021

Every year, the Earth returns to the same point in its orbit where it was when you were born.

A Paper Moon Solar Eclipse

A little universe, just for you

Your date.
Ready to give.

Free PNG · 1080 × 1350 · No account needed

Image rights and credit requirements apply when sharing or reusing imagery.

Change the year

APOD published June 28, 2021. Credit: Wang Letian (Eyes at Night). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.

Behind the image

A Paper Moon Solar Eclipse

Original APOD · June 28, 2021

It may look like a paper Moon. Sailing past a canvas Sun. But those are not cardboard clouds. And it's not make believe.  The featured picture of an orange colored sky is real -- a digital composite of two exposures of the solar eclipse that occurred earlier this month. The first exposure was taken with a regular telescope that captured an overexposed Sun and an underexposed Moon, while the second image was taken with a solar telescope that captured details of the chromosphere of the background Sun. The Sun's canvas-like texture was brought up by imaging in a very specific shade of red emitted by hydrogen. Several prominences can be seen around the Sun's edge. The image was captured just before sunset from Xilingol, Inner Mongolia, China. It's also not make-believe to imagine that the Moon is made of dense rock, the Sun is made of hot gas, and clouds are made of floating droplets of water and ice.

Image credit: Wang Letian (Eyes at Night)

Explore June 28 in other years