AST-1A Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Solar Eclipse, Tidal Locking, Net Force
Document Summary
Goal- to understand the interactions between the earth and the moon. The moon"s orbit is offset from the ecliptic by 5 degrees. There are 2 planes in the orbit called the nodes where the plan of the moon"s orbit intersects with the ecliptic plane. When these interact at either the new moon or full moon. At the full moon, if it lines up onto the node, will be eclipsed. This happens twice per year (with less than half of the earth being able to witness it which means you can witness about 1 lunar eclipse every 1-2 years on average). There are 3 types of lunar eclipses. Similarly, the moon can block the sun when it lines up correctly in the new moon. However, since the moon is much smaller than the earth, the shadow is much smaller, and only a small part of the earth is cast in the moon"s shadow.
