View Astronomy Picture of the Day Archives
May 1, 2016
Contemplating the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Steven Gilbert
Courtesy of http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Contemplating the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Steven Gilbert
Courtesy of http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Have you contemplated your home star recently?
Featured here, a Sun partially eclipsed on the top left by the Moon is also seen eclipsed by
earthlings contemplating the eclipse below.
The spectacular menagerie of silhouettes was taken in 2012 from the
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
near Page,
Arizona,
USA, where park rangers and astronomers expounded on the
unusual event to interested gatherers.
Also faintly visible on the Sun's disk,
just to the lower right of the dark Moon's disk, is a group of
sunspots.
Although a partial solar eclipse by the Moon is indeed a good chance to contemplate the Sun, a great chance -- and one that is significantly
more rare -- will occur
next week when the Sun undergoes a partial eclipse by the
planet Mercury.
