Welcome to eclipseland. Welcome to the world of cosmic shadows
Since billion of years planets, moons and other celestial bodies draw their steady alleys around their home stars. Such do our earth, its moon and sister planets. They circle our sun, that steadily sends its light across to them.
So these celestial bodies cast their shadows out into the vastness of interplanetary space. Once in a while it happens that one of their shadows touches one of them. Or one of the celestial bodies obscures the view across to one of the others.
Then it is there, eclipseland, the land of darkness. And suddenly so much is different. The cosmic shadow lies down onto this world. The everlasting common light is being changed, decreased and even erased. Now things become visible, that elsewhere never can be seen!
When eclipseland is on the moon, we can directly observe it from our earth. The moon becomes darker, it's a lunar eclipse. And so eclipseland is also with us, as the light of the moon is fading away and a light full moon night has become black.
But if ourselves view to the sun is blocked, eclipseland has come directly to us, and that is during the day. Planets are too far away to cover our sun completely, but our moon can make it. Sometimes the moon is near enough to hide the sun completely, and a day becomes the second night: For a few minutes, if not even just for a couple of seconds, the most impressing of all astronomical events can be experienced:
A total eclipse of the sun!
Design and contents: Stephan Heinsius, D-63303 Dreieich, ©SH 2007-2021 - all rights reserved