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Credit & Copyright: Joshua Cripps
Explanation:
What's happening behind that camel?
A partial eclipse of the Sun.
About six and a half weeks ago,
the Moon passed completely in front of
the Sun as seen from a narrow band on
the Earth.
Despite (surely) many
camels being located in
this narrow band, only one found itself
stationed between this camera, the
distant Moon, and the even more
distant Sun.
To create
this impressive superposition, though, took a well-planned trip to the
United Arab Emirates, careful alignments,
and accurate timings on the day of the eclipse.
Although the resulting featured image shows a
partially eclipsed Sun rising,
the Moon went on to appear
completely engulfed by the Sun in an
annular
eclipse known as a
ring of fire.
Forward scattering of sunlight, dominated by quantum mechanical
diffraction, gives the camel hair and rope fray an unusual glow.
The next solar eclipse is also an
annular eclipse and will occur
this coming June.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: annular solar eclipse
Publications with words: annular solar eclipse
See also: