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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

Eclipse to Sunset

Explanation: September's eclipse of the Sun is documented in the 68 frames of this timelapse composite. Starting at 1pm local time a frame every 4 minutes follow's the progress of the New Moon across the solar disk. Taken near the centerline of the narrow eclipse path, the series of exposures ends with a golden sunset. Balanced rock cairns in the foreground line a beach on the southern side of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, near the village of Etang-Salé. Of course, the close balance in apparent size creates drama in eclipses of the Sun by the Moon as seen from planet Earth. In an annular eclipse, the Moon's silhouette is just small enough to show the solar disk as a narrow ring-of-fire at maximum eclipse phase .

Date September 7, 2016
Credit Image Credit & Copyright: Luc Perrot ( TWAN )
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.