Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Astronomy Picture of the Day - Eclipse Pair
NASA ^ | 29 Aug, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Gwenaël Blanck

Posted on 08/29/2026 12:37:31 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: Eclipses tend to come in pairs. Twice a year, during an eclipse season that lasts about 34 days, Sun, Moon, and Earth can nearly align. Then the new and full phases of the Moon, separated by just over 14 days, create a solar and a lunar eclipse. But only rarely is the alignment at both new moon and full moon during a single eclipse season close enough to produce a pair with both total solar and lunar eclipses. More often, partial eclipses are part of any eclipse season. But, the last eclipse season of 2026 did produce this fortnight-separated pairing of a total solar eclipse on August 12 (top) and an almost total lunar eclipse on the night of August 27/28. At New Moon, the solar eclipse was captured at Peñafiel, Spain near the begining of totality in this HDR composite image, revealing a flash of Bailey's beads and a golden solar corona. At the following Full Moon, the deep partial lunar eclipse was recorded from Sèvres, France. Also an HDR composite, the image shows this partial eclipse at closer to half its 93 percent maximum phase, so about half the visible lunar disk appears darkened and reddened within Earth's umbral shadow. The coming eclipse season will see an annular solar eclipse on 2027 February 6 paired with a penumbral lunar eclipse on February 20/21.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

Click here: to donate by Credit Card

Or here: to donate by PayPal

Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794

Thank you very much and God bless you.

To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 08/29/2026 12:37:31 PM PDT by MtnClimber
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 08/29/2026 12:37:52 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 31R1O; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

3 posted on 08/29/2026 12:38:59 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Wow.


4 posted on 08/29/2026 3:13:24 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
We had dozens of people at our club observatory Thursday night.

Any other night they come out, look through our scopes, and leave. A few stay and ask questions.

Thursday night they came with lawn chairs and blankets spread on the ground, sat, stayed, took pictures with their cell phone cameras (or tried to), asked questions, and stayed for quite a while. We had club members with smart scopes, a dobsonion reflector, my 4 1/2” refractor, and the club’s 5” refractor (mounted on our 10” refractor) with a video camera hooked up to a 36” monitor so the observatory full of people could all watch without having to climb a ladder and look through an eyepiece.

We had a great night.> We’re looking forward to the June 2029 TOTAL lunar eclipse! The Moon will be going right through the center of the Earth’s shadow, so it should be totally blacked out for quite a while.

5 posted on 08/29/2026 3:16:05 PM PDT by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Bfl


6 posted on 08/29/2026 3:22:57 PM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too. 😁 " - Robert Conquest )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson