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.
2016 September 22 
Posted on 09/23/2016 4:59:50 AM PDT by ThomasMore
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.
2016 September 22
Explanation: A Harvest Moon rises over Sesimbra Castle south of Lisbon in this impressive series of telephoto exposures. Captured at its full phase, the golden Moon was also gliding through the Earth's more diffuse outer shadow during September's penumbral lunar eclipse. The eclipse shading is subtle compared to a total lunar eclipse. Still, the penumbral shadow does darken the Moon's upper limb, the pale shadow receding as the Moon climbs into Portugal's evening sky. In this eclipse timelapse the effect of sunlight and earthshadow on the Moon looks remarkably like the coloring of light and shadow along the illuminated castle walls.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
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Pretty. Very pretty.
Since the harvest moons occur this time of year near the equinox, the “curve” shows vividly the 22.5 degree angle of the earth’s rotation.
Trivial questions that stump many people: How many days a year does the sun rise in the east, and set in the west?
In the US, where does the sun pass overhead at noon?
23.5
:)
Vulcan has no moon. sad.
Zero. It's an illusion. The Sun doesn't actually rise and set. It only appears to due to the Earth's daily rotation. The Sun basically stays put, at least within a 24-hour time interval.
I know this isn't what you mean...just being a pain in the you-know-what. :)
!
8<)
I assume you mean precisely east, and precisely west?
The apparent answer would of course be during the two equinoxes (Spring and Fall), but I imagine that's the "stumper".
Do you mean directly overhead, as in 90-degrees straight up? Because it reaches its highest point every day everywhere (or most places) at noon. That is what defines the 24 time zones, each one being a 15-deg slice of the complete 360-deg circle.
At the North Pole it rises in the south and sets in the south.............
In the US, where does the sun pass overhead at noon?
Line Islands?.............
On the continental US, even the most “southern point” (classically near Key West’s buoy marker on the south side of the island) is just a bit too far north at 24.545142 N, -81.80964 W to see the sun pass directly overhead even on the summer solstice (22 June most years).
yesterday, on the fall equinox, the sun’s solar elevation angle at local apparent noon everywhere was equal to the observer’s latitude. (Plus of minus a tiny correction for the observer’s altitude of course.)
North of Hawaii main islands, French Frigate Shoals also is too far north to ever get the sun overhead, Necker Island lies right under the sun’s path on the solstice.
But Nihoa Island (and its larger brothers to the south) see the sun pass directly overhead twice a year, and have to look north (past the meridian) to see the sun on the summer solstice.
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